At House of Seasoning Grill, a short stroll from Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, Mass., owners Mathieu Niamke and Raissa Doumbia are bringing West African flavors to the city’s west side. They laugh when I ask if they’d bring their Cote d’Ivoirian cuisine to Albany. “We’re not afraid!” Niamke said. “You can put us alongside food from Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria — all of it. Our food is different. My wife’s seasoning goes through every layer of the meat. We already know it’s that good.”
Such confidence comes from certainty. I didn’t plan to order chicken wings from a menu written in the native French of West Africa’s Ivory Coast, with translations alongside, but Niamke convinces us to order a half-dozen, sliding meat from flats and drums stained burnt sienna by a dry seasoning that colors and flavors flesh through to the bone. These are, without hyperbole, fantastic wings.
House of Seasoning Grill
Address: 117 Seymour St., Pittsfield, Mass.
Hours: Noon to 9 p.m. Wednesday to Saturday, 2 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday and Tuesday. Bar open until midnight.
Prices: Main dishes, $14.99 to $24.99; sides, $5 to $8. Full liquor license.
Info: 413-464-0818 and houseofseasoning.com
Etc.: Parking lot. Not ADA-accessible.
This is just one of Doumbia’s proprietary seasonings handed down from grandparents and made her own over time. Asking questions — first as a customer, later when I follow up by phone — is futile. Niamke claims his wife’s spice blends are so closely guarded that neither he nor staff know what goes into them, and even without ratios they wouldn’t name a single ingredient. Smoked paprika is evident across dishes, along with fragrant cumin, piquant black pepper and chile — I’m guessing Cameroon pepper for its deep flavor, which shows prominently in a softly oiled tomato condiment with subtly numbing heat.
On the menu,…
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