Dozzy’s Grill fires a daytime Memorial Day Monday Night Foodball
Mai suya mostly come out at night. They light the charcoal, thread the spicy peanut-dusted beef onto the skewers, and get grilling.
“It’s the most consumed street food in Nigeria and throughout West Africa,” says Dozzy Ibekwe. “At nighttime, pretty much in every metropolis street corner, there is someone selling suya.”
But Ibekwe, the city’s preeminent ambassador for West African food, is a rule-breaker who likes to meet Americans halfway.
“We’ve been around since the beginning of time,” he says. Nigerian food “is really not something that’s foreign. It’s been a part of the American journey since the beginning of America as we know it today. But we haven’t quite had the population to bring awareness of the cuisine to an American audience. But I can find opportunities to express my cuisine in a different format than we traditionally look at it, while maintaining the integrity of flavors from the region.”
That’s why this coming Monday, May 26, Ibekwe becomes a daylight mai suya, firing up Dozzy’s Grill on the patio at Frank and Mary’s Tavern for a special Memorial Day Foodball, the Reader’s weekly chef pop-up.
If you were at Dozzy’s first Foodball in the summer of ’23, you can’t forget what an absolute rager it was. It’s taken me this long to recover, but it’s time for a return.
That’s unlike Ibekwe, who never stops hustling. He’s preparing to move into the Hatchery and ramp up his already prodigious catering operation, all the while spreading the gospel of West African cuisine, particularly at his Sunday Rice series at the First Presbyterian Church of Chicago in Woodlawn, on the first Sunday of each month.
You, on the other hand, have the day off, so there’s no excuse to miss this West African barbecue—a Midwestern owambe, if you will—featuring a trio of ribeye, shrimp, and halal chicken thigh kabobs, each dusted in yajin kuli, the peanut–alligator pepper–clove spice blend fundamental to suya, each served with peri peri sauce.
Ibekwe’s jollof rice, winner of the 2022 Bronzeville Jollof Competition, is on the menu, and you can your order your suya solo or over a bowl of it, with onions, cherry tomatoes, and radish.
He’s also reprising his vegan akara and dodo, deep-fried black-eyed pea fritters and plantains dipped in peppery ata dindin sauce.
Order the whole spread, orishirishi, meaning a “variety” in Yoruba, but also much more. “To me it means abundance,” says Ibekwe. “Give me your best. It infers hospitality to a superlative degree.”
Finish off with Ibekwe’s signature Nyangbo single-origin chocolate cupcake, scented with calabash nutmeg and sprinkled with gold dust bling.
So sleep in this Monday, May 26—Memorial Day. You’ll need your strength when DJ Mwelwa starts spinning Highlife and Afrobeat and Dozzy’s blasts off at 3 PM at 2905 N. Elston in Avondale.
Meantime, Indigenous-inspired fermentation freaks Piñatta finish this spring lineup on June 2, followed by a brand-new Foodball summer schedule.
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2025-05-22 11:19:15
