Two Hommés Marks Four Years of Afro-Centric Dining in Inglewood

The Black-owned restaurant grew from two Los Angeles friends’ pandemic pop-ups into a permanent home for West African flavors and California influences.

Two Hommés is marking four years of its Inglewood restaurant, a milestone for the business founded by longtime friends Marcus Yaw Johnson, known as Chef Mando, and Abdoulaye Balde, known as Chef AB. The anniversary recognizes the permanent restaurant that opened in 2022, following a pop-up launched in June 2020.

The Voice of Black L.A. highlighted the milestone in a September 17, 2026, Instagram post congratulating Two Hommés and sharing video credited to the restaurant. 

From pop-ups to a permanent home

Before the dining room, there was a rotating operation moving through Los Angeles. The restaurant’s account of its early years describes pop-ups and catering as the founders developed a customer base and worked toward a permanent location.

In an April 2026 interview with Resy, the chefs described taking prepaid orders, cooking from their homes and selling at weekend markets in Leimert Park. They also tried a ghost kitchen before taking the Inglewood space. Balde told the publication that direct interaction with customers mattered to them.

That progression gives the fourth anniversary a longer history: six years since the idea began, with four of those years tied to a neighborhood restaurant. The permanent room made a place for the relationships the founders had begun building through those earlier meals.

West African roots, a Los Angeles point of view

The restaurant calls its cooking Afro-centric. Johnson’s Ghanaian family background and Balde’s family ties to the Gambia-Senegal border inform the menu, alongside Caribbean, Latin American and California influences. The chefs explained those connections in OpenTable’s February 2024 feature on Black-owned Los Angeles restaurants.

“We’re excited to be making good food that the Inglewood community deserves,” Johnson told OpenTable.

The current menu puts those connections on the plate. Its jollof platter pairs Ghanaian rice with plantain, black beans and arugula. Honey berbere chicken bites come with house pickles and citrus aioli, while garlic noodles include cilantro, Thai basil and Gloria’s shito. Sunday brunch carries the kitchen’s approach into dishes such as honey berbere chicken and waffles and shrimp and grits with a jollof cream sauce.

These combinations give diners a way into the founders’ food traditions without presenting them as fixed or separate from life in Los Angeles. Familiar ingredients can appear together in a dish shaped by family, travel and the city where the chefs grew up.

A dining room that has evolved

The business has changed inside its original address. A late-2024 renovation replaced picnic-style seating with banquettes, table lamps and a more intimate room. The founders described that work as a chance to give the space their own identity after the demands of getting the restaurant established.

Today, Two Hommés lists dinner, Sunday brunch, group dining, catering and food-truck events among its services. For the anniversary, the story is the continued development of a Black-owned business with local founders, a specific culinary perspective and a permanent Inglewood home.

Visit: Two Hommés, 902 N. La Brea Avenue, Inglewood, CA 90302. Check the restaurant’s official website for the latest menu, reservations and events.