WCP | Congress Heights' River East Café Serves 'Crankin Cajun' Pasta and Half-Smokes

December 10, 2019 The Advoc8te

👩🏽‍💻This article came out in October, I’m long overdue in sharing it! - The Advoc8te

Kimani Browner-Allen is the owner-operator and executive chef of River East Café located inside the Congress Heights Arts & Culture Center in Southeast D.C. While the restaurant held its grand opening last week, for Browner-Allen—or Chef Ki—the endeavor was a lifetime in the making. Chef Ki was born and raised in Ward 8, and he learned his way around the kitchen by watching his grandmother, who was his primary caregiver. He was always interested in and passionate about cooking, and after high school, he served as a food service specialist in the United States Army. He gained valuable experience cooking in the military, and when he retired, he enrolled in and graduated from culinary school. Next he worked at restaurants including Smokehouse 54 at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland and Jackson 20 in Alexandria, all while launching his own catering company and personal chef business. He also had a strong desire to give back to his neighborhood, and did so by teaching basic cooking skills to students at elementary schools and volunteering his catering services to nonprofits such as ManPower DC headed by Jimmie Jenkins. But Chef Ki felt there was even more that he could contribute. “Ward 8 is located in a food desert,” he says. “We have a lot of fast food carry outs that usually serve meals high in sodium and saturated fat, and we only have one full service grocery store in Ward 8." Food deserts are generally located in lower income and underserved communities where there is minimal access to fresh food. Eradicating food deserts can be challenging because their existence is linked to other complex socioeconomic factors. But Chef Ki was not deterred. “I wanted to create an opportunity for our residents to have access to healthier food.”

SIDNEY THOMAS, WASHINGTON CITY PAPER