Inside Canes & Lemons: A Tulum-Inspired culinary escape in the heart of Abuja

Just in time for the incredibly busy holiday season, Canes & Lemons, a new restaurant that pays homage to Mexico, specifically Tulum, the popular Yucatán destination, is opening to Abuja residents, providing food lovers with the perfect tropical escape from the chaos around them.

Creatively tucked away in the heart of the capital at Art Tech District on 7, Hombari Crescent, Wuse II, Canes & Lemons is a stylishly crafted restaurant that seamlessly transports visitors to two of the world’s most famous destination spots — with earthy tones that look right out of Tulum and hanging lemons on a terrace that’s reminiscent of an Alfresco dining experience of the Amalfi Coast.

Canes & Lemons is the latest addition to a jaw-dropping roster of themed restaurants created by renowned Nigeria-based hospitality front MoRR Food Group, led by restaurateur Funke Olaosebikan. MoRR Food Group’s lineup already includes the groundbreaking Kapadoccia restaurants — Nigeria’s first cave restaurant, as well as the widely popular Sketch Restaurants — Africa’s first 2D restaurant, and the tropical jungle-inspired, Amazonia. These restaurants are located both in the country’s capital, Abuja, and its commercial capital, Lagos.

Looking to expand on its experiential spaces, MoRR Food Group’s Canes & Lemons was designed by the visionary tech entrepreneur Mosope Olaosebikan, whose dabbling into the world of design and hospitality has made him the renowned name behind some of the most iconic experiential spaces in Nigeria, including the Discovery Museum, the first digital museum in Africa.

Rere Design Studio is the Nigeria-based company led by Lanre Ashaolu that helped bring MoRR Food Group and Olaosebikan’s vision to fruition. Working with a team of local artisans, Rere Design Studios employed the use of hand-crafted designs to highlight natural earth tones of beige and metallic red, further accented by lush vegetation sprouts that block out the facades of the surrounding buildings, thereby transporting visitors out of the hustle and bustle of the city and to a tourism destination spot.

Ambience aside, the Canes & Lemons menu marries traditional Nigerian flavours and spices with foreign Mediterranean influences and innovative cooking techniques to create an Afro-Fusion culinary experience for guests — daring, fun and bold, but still keeping with the distinct Nigerian flavour that we all know and love.

As a food lover, Canes & Lemons offers a rare culinary adventure that is almost as daring as the creative vision that drives its general aesthetic.

Looking to cater to top executives in government and the private sector, as well as families and general food thrill seekers, Bilal, the restaurant manager, expresses the desire for Canes & Lemons to become a safe space for Abuja residents to have meetings, enjoy a really wholesome dining experience and be completely submerged in an environment that helps them escape from the normal grind, even if it’s just for a couple of hours.

As Nigeria continues to expand its reach in the global tourism space, experiential restaurants and spaces have become significant players in building the economy and expressing creativity. Canes & Lemons is another experiential restaurant that brings something new and exciting to the scene. Catering to a vast audience, Canes & Lemons provides a delicious adventure for food lovers, an incredible ambience for the social-media “post it as you go” content-creating generation, as well as something new, fresh and exciting for Abuja residents looking to take a break from the life around them and experience something new without having to book a flight.