Chef Kwame Onwuachi, the culinary star and author who made a name for himself on the Bravo series Top Chef and with acclaimed Wharf restaurant Kith/Kin, is returning to D.C. this fall with a new restaurant at the Salamander hotel.

There’s no word yet on the name or menu for the restaurant at the Black-owned luxury hotel in Southwest D.C., formerly the Mandarin Oriental. Eater DC first reported the news.

But expectations are high — The James Beard Foundation named Onwuachi “Rising Star Chef of the Year” in 2019 for his work at Kith/Kin, which was celebrated for its game-changing Afro-Caribbean cuisine. Onwuachi resigned as the executive chef from Kith/Kin during the height of the pandemic  — the space is now Moon Rabbit. But the young chef has continued to impress, including with the newly opened Tatiana in his hometown of New York, which has already received rave reviews.

A news release describes the new D.C. restaurant as a partnership between Onwuachi and the CEO of Salamander Hotels & Resorts, Sheila Johnson. Johnson is also a household name in the business community, having co-founded BET and now running her own hotel company. Johnson and Onwuachi have already worked together, collaborating for the last three years on Family Reunion, a multi-day culinary event at the Salamander’s Loudon County resort that seeks to celebrate diversity within the hospitality industry through panel discussions and cooking demonstrations.

Johnson said in a statement that she wanted to bring back Onwuachi since opening her D.C. hotel in September 2022. The new hotel restaurant is expected to occupy the long-closed CityZen, which was a ground-level space that seated nearly 400 people. New York architects Bentel & Bentel will redesign the space.

“The time is right to return to DC, and I can’t think of a more appropriate location to open a new restaurant that speaks to the character and lineage of DC than at this storied Salamander property,” Onwuachi said in a statement. “As a child, I spent summers in DC with my grandfather, a professor of Pan African studies at Howard University, who shared his passion for the city with me. I fell in love and can’t wait to return.”

Onwuachi has long appreciated the D.C. dining scene, even when he faced criticism. His debut restaurant in the city, Shaw Bijou, closed after just a few months. But he defended his vision for that restaurant and opened a new one, Kith/Kin, that same year, in 2017.

Onwuachi is also known for his time on Top Chef — he came in 6th in season 13 despite only being in his mid-20s — and continues to be involved with the franchise, occasionally serving as a judge on the main show in 2021 hosting Top Chef Amateurs, which featured home cooks. He’s also known for his honest reflections of his time in the restaurant industry in his well-received memoir, Notes from a Young Black Chef.