After the Immense Success of Ghetto Gastro, Jon Gray Readies His First Restaurant
The cofounder of the creative world’s sought-after culinary collective opens Gourmega, a Greenwich Village restaurant designed by Mariam Issoufou
Jon Gray knew how to cook before he could read. Today, the Bronx-based chef’s widely celebrated food collective, Ghetto Gastro, which he established with Pierre Serrao and Lester Walker, ranks among the art world’s foremost caterers, orchestrating thoughtfully conceived meals during fashion weeks, award seasons, and art fairs in New York, Basel, and Tokyo. Yet even as a child growing up in the Bronx and Spanish Harlem, Gray recognized food’s visual power. “I was groomed to be creative,” he tells Galerie, recalling childhood trips to museums with his mother. “I’ve always loved aesthetics and beauty, but you don’t always realize these until you reflect and look back.”
After 15 years, during which Ghetto Gastro has risen to the forefront of experiential dining, Gray now has a new outlet to expand that vision. Gourmega, the collective’s first brick-and-mortar restaurant, gives him and his team a permanent home to deepen their socially conscious practice.
“We’ve been taking our show on the road for a while,” says Gray, who envisioned a restaurant that could shift perspectives and leave guests feeling like they had uncovered something new. “We want to evoke the art of discovery and wonder. We’re after something you cannot experience on the internet first. If it doesn’t exist, I’ve got to make it.”
The interior, conceived by architect Mariam Issoufou, embodies that ambition, inviting diners to savor both the cuisine and the carefully considered surroundings. Gray enlisted the New York, Zurich, and Niger–based architect after visiting the pavilion she designed for Rolex in Venice. She centered the low-lit dining room around a 14-seat circular table composed of three joined slabs of Nubian alabaster, allowing every guest to participate in a shared conversation.
Circular forms recur throughout. “We wanted to honor the sacred geometry,” Gray explains, citing the number seven as a symbol of wholeness. He also commissioned Lagos-based designer Nifemi Marcus-Bello to create 14 wall panels cast in Benin bronze that reference historic facial scarification traditions. A transparent circular door separates the dining area from the kitchen, offering glimpses of the activity beyond. “Cooking is like a performance just like Crazy Horse in Paris,” says Gray, describing the choreography between guests and the culinary team.
From artworks by Rashid Johnson and Hugh Hayden to a tan limewashed bar that references 20th-century Black and tan clubs, Gray and Issoufou weave thoughtful tributes to Black culture throughout the restaurant. Gray also sought to celebrate Black queens across history, incorporating subtle references to figures such as Nina Simone and Nefertiti into the scheme.
The exquisitely appointed surroundings provide an elegant backdrop for the cuisine. Gray describes the three-course menu as “Afro-Asiatic-Americana that taps into ingredients from the equator and the Americas.” The meal opens with Pot Licker, a collard green broth finished with pepper oil. “We want to first warm the body,” the chef says. Next comes Role Play, a red rice dish that pays homage to West African traditions while acknowledging descendants such as jollof and jambalaya. Puerto Rican shaved ice, known as piragua, concludes the experience, which Gray describes as “a celebration of dishes that started on the African continent but traveled to the world.”
Accompanying the imaginative cuisine is a sense of social awareness. Through a partnership with food equality nonprofit Rethink Food, the kitchen distributes roughly 3,000 meals each week to people in need. Even so, ceremony remains central to Gray’s vision. “The most mundane things, like eating, should be celebrated,” he says, reflecting on what he calls the “most elemental human thing”—outside of breathing, of course. “We all have our point of view on food, based on culture, economic strata, and religion. We can all come together around it to break bread.”
Gourmega is located at 116 West Houston St, New York.