Solaire Social offers globetrotting food, rich cultural heritage

New Silver Spring food hall opens Friday

May 31, 2024 3:19 p.m.

Ndidiamaka Agu grinned from ear to ear, with a sense of deep pride and satisfaction. Despite a long and arduous journey with a fair share of setbacks, she is finally realizing her dream of opening an ice cream shop featuring African flavors.

As the founder and CEO of Shuga x Ice, the Silver Spring resident and New York City native is one of several international and culturally diverse vendors joining Solaire Social at 8200 Dixon Lane in downtown Silver Spring. The new food hall is holding its grand opening Friday and through the weekend.

The 13,000-square-foot food hall was created by Chef Akhtar Nawab of Hospitality HQ, based in Brooklyn, New York, and specializing in the creation of food halls nationwide. The venue also features a 40-seat bar and entertainment stage.

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Located at the base of a residential apartment building, Solaire features high ceilings and long, spacious walkways. With several seating areas featuring chairs and stools, the food hall offers views into the neighborhood through large rectangular windows. 

Solaire Social Assistant General Manager Belinda Banini said the food hall’s design seeks to create a modern look and feel. 

“The concept was to have a place for family, young professionals–something more elevated and classy–similar to Union Market [in Washington, D.C.] but in Silver Spring so people don’t have to travel as far and have more space to sit and actually enjoy themselves,” she said.

Agu is one of eight vendors picked by Nawab for Solaire Social, according to a press release. The venue held a “soft” opening on May 17 for vendors’ families and friends and an open house for media Wednesday night.

The other vendors include Fire Pit Brazilian Cuisine & Barbecue, Just Chicken, Kabab 2 Go, Kati Roll Wala, Pau & Sophia’s Thai Kitchen, SOKO Butchery, SOKO Oysters and Manna Sushi.

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During the media event, Agu said her Nigerian heritage inspired the idea for her new business.

Her ice cream shop offers five flavors–“Tea and bread,” a spicy chocolate “Gbas Gbos,” Malta-flavored “Love Nwantinti,”  a coconut cream frozen dessert “Chin Chin and cream,” and “Madagascar vanilla”—with more to come, according to Agu.

“Tea and bread was one of the first flavors I ever made–it was originally ‘tea and biscuits,’ ” she said. “Growing up here and then whenever I visited when I was younger in Nigeria, one of the biggest things we’d have in the morning is tea and bread–but the bread is very nostalgic because that’s agege bread.”

For the “Tea and bread” flavor, Agu incorporates small croutons of Nigerian agege into the ice cream. “Love Nwantinti” includes the non-alcoholic Malta Guinness beverage from Cameroon, also found in Nigeria, as the main flavor.

Another vendor is Brazil native Gui Gonzalez, who co-owns Fire Pit Brazilian Cuisine & Barbecue along with his wife, Fabi. A Silver Spring resident, he moved from Brazil to Rockville at age 14 and graduated from Wheaton High School.

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Gonzalez said he was invited by Nawab to join Solaire Social several years after opening a food truck on Rockville Pike under the same Fire Pit brand.

“I wanted an English name instead of a Portuguese name so people can understand exactly what it means,” he said. “We use real fire to cook our meat so it’s not on a flat griddle [or] gas-powered.” 

With Fire Pit, Gonzalez said he wanted to replicate the authentic, flame-grilled southern Brazilian barbecue found in his native Porto Alegre, capital of the Rio Grande do Sul state bordering Uruguay and Argentina.

“What I want people to know is that I want to provide good Brazilian barbecue [with] affordable and quick service,” he said. “We plan to have multiple locations throughout [D.C., Maryland and Virginia] over the next couple years.”

Solaire Social vendor Brad Feikert already owns two locations in Takoma Park–the deli SOKO Butchery and Koma Café. At Solaire Social, he has opened SOKO Oysters and a second SOKO Butchery location.

“It’s been good, it’s been busy,” he said during the media event. “Hoping the word gets out and it keeps growing.”

Born and raised in Northern Virginia, Feikert said he has learned to maximize outreach within Montgomery County.

“I think it was a good opportunity to reach some of the demographic and people in Silver Spring,” he said. “The hospitality company that owns Solaire Social has been really nice [to work] with, and I appreciate what they’re trying to do.”  

For Agu, the journey that led her to open her ice cream shop at Solaire Social was far from routine.

“The idea came in 2017, and I moved [to Silver Spring] in 2019,” she said. “Last year in 2023, I got laid off from my job in January–I was a creative project manager and it came out of nowhere, they dissolved my position.”

But Agu said she was undeterred by the loss of her job. What followed was a process that eventually led her to Nawab. “It was like OK, it hurts my ego,” she added. “But I knew the next step was I’m doing this full-time whether I have a job or not.”

Now that she has opened, Agu said the scope of her business and Solaire Social extends far beyond merely the gastronomical.

“It’s more than ice cream–it’s a connection, it’s community, it’s bridging a gap,” she said. “It’s much bigger than just a sweet treat … it’s taking people back home, connecting people back to where they come from, [and] opening new experiences for people who have never tasted this before.”

Solaire will be open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m. through 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

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