When Bintü Atelier opened in the summer of 2023, it marked the start of an important chapter in the downtown Charleston restaurant scene. While the influences of African cuisine are integral to the story of South Carolina and its complicated history, there was not a restaurant specializing in food of the African continent on the peninsula. Bintou N’Daw, a native of Dakar, Senegal, wanted to change that.
And since opening, the accolades for Bintü have piled up. Bon Appetit named it one of the “20 Best New Restaurants of 2024” and it made Esquire’s 2024 list of the nation’s best new restaurants. Most recently, N’Daw was named a 2026 James Beard Award Semifinalist for Best Chef: Southeast.
Eating a meal there is soul-affirming. It is a restaurant rooted in history and global influence, paying homage to the Lowcountry and pushing people to learn and understand more about culture through cuisine.
N’Daw’s genesis as a chef
It should come as no surprise that a woman with a dynamic upbringing would create such a dynamic restaurant. Both of N’Daw’s French and Senegalese grandmothers were caterers. They also were her first teachers in the kitchen…