Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox.
Subscribe to our newsletter here.

Chefs from the Black diaspora in Syracuse cook flaky chapati, brown stew chicken and baked mac and cheese, fostering a diverse cuisine center in central New York. Diners walk in seeking a taste of home or hoping to expand their palates.

One of these chefs, Riyaq Dukous, heats oil in a stainless steel pan at Somali Restaurant on North Salina Street at 8 a.m.. Muslim prayer calls softly play as Dukous prepares for the morning rush.

“We want to introduce other people like ‘Hey guys, it isn’t only American food in the world, so you should try this also,’” Dukous said.

Before moving to Syracuse in 2023, Dukous raised her family in Somalia, and then lived in Jordan for 12 years. In Somalia, Dukous was a nurse. When she moved to the United States, she said she had to change her profession because of the language barrier and the lack of government benefits. So, she decided she would open a restaurant.

Her son, Abdalla Mohammad, said Dukous loves to help people. She makes efforts to feed people that are homeless, Mohammad said, and always aims to make the people that walk in her restaurant feel happy.

When Somalis come to Somali Restaurant, it’s like a second home, as it’s the only Somali restaurant in Syracuse, Mohammad said. Customers from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan and even Rochester dine at the East African restaurant, which welcomes a diverse crowd.

The most popular dishes at the restaurant are sambusa, fried dough pastry with either meat or vegetables; chapati, crispy flatbread and rice with three different kinds of meat like chicken suqaar, goat or beef. Mohammad’s favorite is his mom’s rice.

“She’s my mom, I know. But if I was a customer, I’d be here everyday,” Mohammad said.

During Ramadan, Dukous wanted the Muslim community to have a place to break their fast. Some people break their fast with dates followed by the sambusa, so she prepares extras during the holy month.

Irvin Hanslip, also known as Bongo, is another chef deeply tied to his cultural roots. In his Jamaican restaurant, Jerk Hut, Bongo cooks brown stew chicken while Jerome Espree, a consultant, chats with customers in front of a glass refrigerator filled with Jamaican drinks like Kola Champagne as a Bob Marley banner hangs along the wall.

“To be honest, you are sitting in my living room,” Bongo said with a smile.

Born in St. Mary Parish, Jamaica, Bongo moved to Syracuse in the early 1970s. Before Bongo got to cooking and seasoning, he worked as a mason and did apprentice work.

In 1996, Bongo opened Jerk Hut, which was named to remind people of outdoor cooking in Jamaica. He raised his children at the restaurant — his first home, he said. His late wife’s photo is framed above the vase of flowers near the counter in the shop. He says she would review the paperwork for the restaurant while Bongo would focus on kitchen duties.

Customers tend to order oxtail at Jerk Hut. Bongo offers jerk fish for pescatarian diets, which was his son Jose’s idea. A jerk salad option is on the menu for vegetarians.

But what diners enjoy the most is his jerk sauce. Bongo said people love it and he has created a flavor that can’t be found outside of Jerk Hut.

“My sauce that I fix, you won’t find it nowhere else,” Bongo said.

While Bongo said he focuses on kitchen duties, Espree helps with the business side of the restaurant. Bongo is looking to add an outdoor deck in the back of his shop, as he said outdoor cooking gives his food a good flavor.

The Great New York State Fair isn’t just a time to listen to music and enjoy rides, but also to explore cultural cuisines. Bongo has been participating and performing at the fair since the ‘80s. His restaurant is a spot for generations of customers to come and he wants to give them the best experience possible, he said.

Sleyrow Mason also prioritizes the happiness of his customers at his soul food spot, SOULutions, in Salt City Market. The 49-year-old Brooklyn native started the business in 2021 with a mission to satisfy southern comfort cravings for meals like baked mac and cheese and candy yams.

“We want to be the answer to soul food,” Mason said.

His menu includes ribs, berbere mustard fried chicken and fried catfish, which is only served on Fridays. Mason said traditional soul food includes black-eyed peas, fried chicken and collard greens.

But his signature dish is oven-roasted ribs.

“Nobody really does ‘em like that. We season them up, oven roast them off and then we slow cook them until they are nice and tender,” Mason said.

Mason took one culinary class for six months, but the rest of his skills were developed on his own by practicing different meals. Once you learn how to apply different techniques to different food, he said, you can basically cook anything.

He learned how to cook from his mother, but his oven-roasted ribs recipe is his own. He perfected the ribs over the years from his experience working at restaurants and memories from cooking with his mom. Mason said that he makes traditional soul food and fuses it with other food to take it to the “next level.”

His inspirations include Marcus Samuelsson, an Ethiopian-born Swedish-American celebrity chef, Gordon Ramsay and Tyler Florence. Mason likes the simplicity yet elegance of Ramsay’s cooking and Samuelsson’s traditional East African dishes fused with Swedish style.

Running a business can be challenging, he said. He has to order the food, restock his supplies, food prep, create recipes and consider profits on new dishes. Challenges like staffing issues might arise, but it doesn’t stop Mason from interacting with new customers.

Syracuse natives Troy and Zeruiah Jones, grabbed a cheddar burger, macaroni and cheese, chicken sandwich and potatoes for take out at SOULutions. Jones calls it “the best.”

“Soul food is more like a labor of love, so we take time to slow roast things,” Mason said. “It’s not just all thrown together.”

Mason said soul food is good because it’s flavorful. But really, he said soul food is cooked with a lot of love. When people visit his restaurant, Mason wants people to feel comfortable and amazed by the food.

“We have a lot of different people from different walks of life that actually congregate here, so they get to try things that they might not have tried anyplace else,” Mason said.

Published on April 17, 2025 at 2:04 am