Caribbean and West African food truck Yum Village plans New Center location

By Tom Perkins

Oct 29, 2018 at 4:54 pm

Audio By Carbonatix

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Courtesy photo

Godwin Ihentuge

First generation Nigerian chef Godwin Ihentuge will build out a brick and mortar space in New Center for Yum Village, his West African and Caribbean food truck.

Supino owner is planning a pizza concept in New Center

The shop is planned for the former Atomic Chicken location at 6500 Woodward Ave., and will also be home to concepts by two other chefs with whom Ihentuge is working. Yum Village, which pays its employees $15 an hour, is also a culinary incubator that helps young chefs develop, gain experience, and get their name out. Ihentuge is also a board member for Restaurant Opportunity Center's COLORS restaurant.

Once the new restaurant opens, Tracy Garley of Liberian-style Culture in Bowl and Elihu Muhammad of North African/French concept Cilantro will also work out of the location, The Detroit News reports.

Ihentuge is targeting a February opening and is fundraising with a $25,000 Kickstarter campaign.

Two refugees are opening a restaurant on one of Detroit's best blocks

Atomic Chicken closed in August after a year in business in which it experienced slow sales, but several high profile restaurants are planned for that strip of Woodward. Those include refugee-run Baobab Fare; a new pizza concept by Supino; and a new Mediterranean restaurant planned by Selden Standard's owners.

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