When Diana Tandia makes jollof rice, she lets it burn a little at the bottom of the pot, just enough so that smoke rises to possess every grain.

At Berber Street Food, the tiny restaurant she opened in the West Village in September, the rice arrives stained reddish-orange, with smoke still in its soul. After a wallow in melted tomatoes, bay leaves and thyme, it’s as rich as — if daintier in scale than — the grand heaps served at West African restaurants in Harlem or the Bronx.

Other dishes draw from the cuisines of North Africa, like thumb-lengths of lamb kofta, the meat vivid with mint and a daub of housemade harissa, profoundly earthy and sunny at once. Ms. Tandia’s harissa is an essential contribution to the city, evoking the fervor of chiles without their spiky heat.