"A decade ago Pierre Thiam operated a tiny Senegalese restaurant and jazz club in Clinton Hill. In the interim, he established a formal restaurant in Dakar and published a series of West African cookbooks. Now he presides over a pair of cafes in downtown Brooklyn and in Harlem that have reformulated the collected cuisines of West Africa for contemporary tastes, concentrating on salad and rice bowls with yassa and beef suya. Beer, wine, and cocktails are available." - Robert Sietsema