Sankofa Arts Kafe

Saturday night is open mic night. Live music, drinks at a reasonable price, good people, cool change of pace chill spot.

Tonite we were headed to Cowboy Chow, ready for some Chicken Pot Pie. Boo, they closed tonite for a private party. Walked up the street a bit and saw Sankofa. Assume it’s African (go me, googled it and turns out its Ghanaian) and walk over to check out the menu.
Turns out they have a cajun/​creole menu, so we decide to check it out. Initial reaction is WOW the music is loud. There are not enough people in here for it to be this loud. Notice there’s a DJ upstairs just going at it. Oh well, let’s just find a seat and get a beer.
The place had a significant number of people in it, however I think most of them were workers or friends of workers, it only appeared to have 2 other tables that were being served. Lots of folks hanging out at the bar and going up and down the stairs the whole time.
Service was ok, not overly accomodating as several things we ordered were out, including crawfish for the crawfish étouffée, so I was relagated to shrimp in my étouffée, which was fine until I was told it would be a $ 2 charge to upgrade to shrimp. Hmmmkay, you don’t usually charge a customer for making a substitution on something that you were OUT of, especially after having been OUT of a couple other things (Coors Light!) already.
Anyhow, I do have to say that we did feel cool checking this place out, as we were the only crackers in the joint, and about halfway through the dinner we realized this was the place that shut down a couple years ago due to bad press from an unfortunate shooting incident at their previous south Dallas address, and had since reopened in the «safer» neighborhood of Deep Ellum… Instant street cred, if I don’t say so myself!
Anyhow, despite the juxtapositioning of linen tablecloths and paper napkins, with gumbo served in a styrofoam cup on a saucer, I did find the food to be on target. Not amazing, but definitely not bad. The gumbo was interesting, almost more of an étouffée itself as it was thick and creamy with corn in it (which I like a lot better than when places put tomatoes in, ew!) and the shrimp étouffée had a distinct flavor, and a serious kick. Each was served with perfect garlic toast, the crunchy kind, and garnished well with parsley and pepper.
My major complaints were the loud music (I’m guessing it’s a club at night? It has an upstairs that looks pretty roomy, so maybe for dancing) and the petty $ 2 charge for «upgrading» my dinner for something they were out of, and the fact that the beers were $ 5. Is this American Airlines Center?
I’d definitely come back, at least once — as the menu ranges from fried to blackened chicken, also offered pasta and traditional cajun fare, plus burgers with sweet potato fries… they’re open for lunch so maybe the music’s not so loud if you check it out before Friday night.
3 stars for potential, but definitely some room for improvement.