Nyame Ye Offers Taste of Africa

Mount Vernon residents looking for a taste of authentic African and Jamaican cuisine will no longer have to go far to find it.

Sophia Sarpong and her husband, Sam, will open Nyame Ye in the former Puerta Vieja restaurant space on June 1. Nyame Ye will serve traditional African and Jamaican dishes including goat meat with okra, jollof rice with chicken, and banku with okra. Sarpong said she decided to open a restaurant specializing in both cuisines because they are very similar.

“It’s a taste of Africa,” Sarpong said. “People are tired of Chinese, and it’s something different.”

The couple hired a chef from Africa who specializes in cooking the cuisine, according to Sarpong, and all of the spices used in the dishes will come from Africa.

Sarpong immigrated to the United States from Ghana more than two decades ago. Her husband and her husband also own the in the Engleside Plaza shopping center and the Tropical International Market in Gaithersburg, Md.