3 restaurants open in 2 months to bring together a Winnipeg Nigerian population that's doubled in size

Elizabeth Lawalloves to bring Nigerians in Winnipeg together, and now she's doing it over flavourful dishesofpounded yam orjollofrice.

"That is the joy I haveto see something that is not in the cityI created," she said.

Lawal is the first to admit she was taking on a challenge in openingAkin's African Restaurant and Bar on Sargent Avenue, in the Spenceneighbourhood theentrepreneur, who has been in Canada since 1986, already runs a successful grocery store, salon andemployment agency, and ownsrental properties.

The gregarious host, wearing a purple apron reading"adorable," acknowledges she's busy enough, but she saw a need: Winnipeg hasplenty of East African establishments, but not enoughrestaurants dishing out the West African cuisine her fellow Nigerians are after.

The new restaurant catersto a swelling Nigerian community in Winnipeg onewhich has more than doubled in size from 1,340 people of Nigerian originin 2011 to 3,450 people by 2016, according to Statistics Canada data.

"I don't think I did it to make an incomeI did it because the city needs it," she said.

Filling a niche

New restaurants run by Nigerians are sprouting up inWinnipeg to meet that need.

Lawal's opened lastDecember.

And then there'sVictor Alozie, who is behind two new ventures thatstarted serving customers in November: the Fort Rouge-area One Stop African Restaurant, at the corner of Ebby and Pembina, and Yellow Chili Restaurant, on Main StreetinNorth Point Douglas.

The key to his business, Alozie says, "lies in locating what is not there, why it's not there and how to fill the vacuum."

He previously collaborated with another cook to open a joint West African/Indian eatery in the city's south end, which gave him the confidence to strike out on his own.

"I decided it was important, necessary, to establish a Nigerian restaurant so Nigerians here in Winnipeg can feel at home."

He didn't intend to open two outlets at once, but he's confident he can make them both work. His Point Douglas location, Yellow Chili Restaurant, has adopted some of the conventional flavoursof the neighbourhood, like bannock and burgers, alongside Nigerian favourites such aspuff puffa lightly-sweetened doughnutor akara, spiced fritters made with bean flour.

"He understandsthat this business is in an area that needs to have other things served,"said Holly Dyck, whocame in as a cook without experience.

"I was learning a bit from the best Nigerian educational videos, you could say."

Most of their African food is sold through delivery.

In the south end of Winnipeg, meanwhile, Shade Akin-Akinbulumoturned her takeout business into a kioskat the University of Manitoba, and is gratified by the support she's received from the post-secondary lunch crowd.

"It's gone beyond your community," she remembers a manager telling her. The realization delighted her.

Nigerian food, she says, is flavourful that's how her customers describe it. Conventional rice dishes are often blended with varied spices.

At her Sargent Avenue restaurant, Lawal says she always liked to cook West African dishes at home, where her kidseat as they would if they werein Nigeria. But she was convinced to bring her cooking to the masses after enough of her grocery customers asked her to start.

She said their restaurant'stop-sellingitem ispounded yamsimilar in texture tomashed potatoes, but heavier. Another favourite is jollof rice, a dish teeming with rice, tomatoes and any number of meats and spices. It's a good introductory dish for those new to West African cuisine, Lawal said.

The early customer rush prompted her to hire another chef earlier than sheimagined.

When the restaurant opened, "All the West [Africans] just bombard us with demand," she said. "It'snot a regret we open, but it's too much work for one person."

Even with the help, it's a lot of work, Lawal says but it's also, as she says, her joy.

"SometimesI ask God: why you make me crazylike this?" she said, chuckling. "Right now, I don't really need to open the restaurant to live,but I justlike to take challenges in my life."