Little Lagos first popped up in 2018, selling Nigerian meat pies, jollof rice and goat stew out of a bar in Newtown, Sydney. Word spread, and by 2020 the eatery had found a permanent home in the neighbouring suburb of Enmore.

Six years after that first appearance – and after expanding to Brisbane with Lekki by Little Lagos – founder Adetokunboh Adeniyi is bringing Little Lagos to Melbourne. He’s starting with a months-long pop-up at chef Sebastian Pasinetti’s Oko Rooftop and Cafe, just above the Rose Street Artists’ Market in Fitzroy, but eventually hopes to find a more permanent space that he can turn into a hub for the local West African community.

“[Little Lagos] came about as a goal of mine to have a Black-owned space where everyone is welcome to experience authentic West African – Nigerian – community and culture, which was really missing in Sydney at that time,” Adeniyi tells Broadsheet.

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“The whole idea was to have people come and try Nigerian street food, authentic traditional dishes, special cocktails, local brews, and listen to music, watch a live performance, listen to a poet or see an art exhibition, network, meet other people … as you would if you were in any major Lagos suburb.”

The extended Melbourne pop-up officially opens next week, but the team will give a taste of what’s to come this weekend with a three-day bash from Friday March 8 to Sunday March 10, starting at 4pm each day. “Everyone will experience an authentic Lagos party,” Adeniyi says, with DJ sets and a special street food menu.

“It’s not really a Nigerian party without jollof rice and goat meat, so that’s definitely on the menu,” he says. There’ll also be Little Lagos’s best-selling “puff puff” doughnuts (doughnut holes made from a yeasted dough), popular vegan dish ewa agoyin (black-eyed beans), plantains and flaky, crescent-shaped Nigerian meat pies. To drink, there’ll be signature Little Lagos cocktails like the playful Nollywood Nights and Fela in Versace.

The team has big plans for the city. When the rooftop pop-up officially opens next week, it will function like a restaurant and bar but with plenty of one-off events – like an Afro-Caribbean cookout, a Ghanian kitchen takeover, fashion shows and movie nights.

@alittlelagos