Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s latest restaurant is a Caribbean Steak in Las Vegas

When Kwame Onwuachi talks about food, he does not just create a memory, migration, and resistance. The Upper chef Star and James Beard recipients are the storytellers who make up their dishes around history and heritage. Now, Onwuachi brings his vision to Las Vegas with Maroon, an Afro-Caribbean steak at Sahara Las Vegas.

The onwuachi vision for the restaurant is to repeat the classic American steak through the Caribbean cuisine lens. There will be jerk scrubs and dry wounds, cooking live flames, sauce of scotch bonnet, roasted seafood, and vibrant side of the West African tradition, Jamaica, and Creole. It eats good in cultural memory.

But for onwuachi, Maroon is more than a restaurant. It is a reclamation of history and culture through a good lens -and it all starts with the same. Maroon’s name is a reference to Maroons of Jamaica-Descendants of a stabbed African escaping from slavery and creating a sufficient community on Jamaica Blue Mountain. “The Maroons don’t just run,” said onwuachi Travel + free time. “They thrive, they create something new, something strong, from pain and match. The energy -the story is what this restaurant is.”

“This is not just about food,” he said. “It’s about telling the stories that have not been told. It’s about respecting heritage and recognizing that the food we put on this plate has a deeper meaning, not just a dish -it’s a history, it is durable, and it is proof of the strength of the people who came before us.”

Onwuachi is no stranger to build a restaurant that is a cultural moment. Its New York City Prime, Tatiana by kwame onwuachiOpened at the Lincoln center at the end of 2022 and quickly becomes a sensation. (In 2023 and 2024, it ranked the No. 1 restaurant in New York City by The New York TimesLead the annual list of 100 best restaurants in the city.) The new Washington Project, DC, DōgonAlso earn great appreciation.

That’s what he hoped to do in Las Vegas. Maroon will be the Sahara Las Vegas Signature Signature Signature of Evolution -a silent resort but deliberately places itself as a destination for a wise luxury.

“We deliberately selected Kwame Onwuachi as our partner for the next chapter of Sahara Las Vegas cuisine,” Sahara owner Alex Meruelo told T+L. “Its combinations that cannot be compared to its incredible story, culture, and cuisine are unique. Maroon will not only advance Chef Kwame’s personal vision but also revolutionize the current steak experience on the path and beyond.”

In a city with dozens of luxury steakhouse -mostly modeled on the tradition of American or classical European or Europeans -Onwuachi took it separated. Not just different flavors; That’s the purpose is different.

Maroon is also the first concept of a strip led by the owner of the black chef, who is rooted in diasporic cuisine, and is designed from the bottom to represent a broader cultural vision. But onwuachi is quick to note that representative only is not an endgame. “It’s not just to be the first,” he said. “It’s about making sure we’re not the last. It’s about opening the door and then holding it open to others.”

This ethos goes beyond the kitchen. On Patty’s castle In Queens, onwuachi sell MiriThe glittering water brand is founded to support the clean water initiative in Nigeria. Part of the benefits of each bottle sold directly towards a well -known community building. “The goal is to create something that leaves a positive sign,” he said. “Whether through food or generosity, it’s about the effect.”

As Las Vegas continues to grow from the extreme playground to a city with a growing cultural nuances, Maroon feels timely. Las Vegas has always been a place for big names and big concepts, but the strip is not always a place where the food brings this weight. Maroon is ready to divert the balance. The arrival is a signal that the eating landscape turns to something more inclusive, more rooted, more real.

For onwuachi, the next chapter is back to the original, and how to bring the past and the future to one place. “Food is a memory,” he said. “It is how we remember who we are -and how we show the world we can be.”

Travelers who come down to Las Vegas this year will surely find all the pleasures, but in Sahara, they will also find something full of passion, high, and long -lasting. The seat in Maroon will be an invitation to experience the story told in the fire, taste, and freedom.