Marayani Thism likes to benefit from the District’s restaurant scene and feels blessed to stay within the Petworth neighborhood in Northwest so she will be near many institutions.
On June 7, she and a pal from Baltimore, Karthik Vempati, determined to exit to eat at one in all her favourite close by eating places, Tsehay Ethiopian Restaurant and Bar, situated within the ethnically numerous, bustling Adams Morgan neighborhood in Northwest.
“That is the third time I’ve been right here,” mentioned Thism, 25. “This restaurant comes extremely rated with its Michelin assessment and I like its menu that has vegetarian choices. The meals right here is genuine and meets my dietary wants.”
Thism didn’t specific shock when discovering out that the eatery has been nominated for a RAMMY, the Restaurant Affiliation Metropolitan Washington’s (RAMW) awards, for Informal Restaurant of the 12 months (for 2024).
“You get good meals at a superb worth right here and the ambiance is nice,” she mentioned.
Whereas the winner is not going to be introduced till Aug 3., in the course of the annual RAMMYS gala on the Walter E. Washington Conference Middle in Northwest, D.C, Tsehay co-owner Thewodros Yirdaw was additionally happy on the nomination.
“We have been blown away once we heard about it,” Yirdaw, 41, mentioned. “We’re very grateful and glad that Ethiopian meals is getting the popularity it deserves.”
The Story Behind Tsehay
Tsehay is the title of Yirdaw’s mother-in-law, mom of his spouse Selam Gossa.
“Tsehay grew up in Harragie, Ethiopia and discovered how you can prepare dinner conventional Ethiopian meals whereas serving to her mom within the kitchen,” he mentioned. “As she grew older and will work, she started working with Greek and Japanese immigrants to diversify and additional hone her cooking abilities and have become passionate for meals.”
Yirdaw mentioned Tsehay married and moved to Ethiopia’s capital metropolis, Addis Ababa, and opened a café to assist her 4 youngsters. He famous that his mother-in-law didn’t buy spices however as a substitute made all the pieces they served by hand.
Yirdaw mentioned he and his spouse left Addis Ababa in 2001 to come back to the U.S.
Yirdaw’s household are part of a big contingent of Ethiopians and Ethiopian People that quantity barely over 200,000 within the Washington, D.C. metropolitan space, the most important gathering of its sort exterior of Africa.
“We got here to the US for a greater life,” he mentioned. “We needed monetary safety. We needed to have a easy job.”
The Tsehay Expertise
In a nod to her mom, Gossa makes berbere, kibe and shiro (chickpea flour stew) within the kitchen from components she purchases and cobbles collectively as a substitute of buying the meals prepackaged.
“Let me say that we authentically put together our meals,” Yirdaw mentioned. “We all know there are different Ethiopian eating places, and so they do what they do, however after they say they put together their meals authentically, I believe they use the time period loosely.”
Yirdaw mentioned his spouse ready teff injera— a preferred bread-like meals that’s standard in Ethiopia— by hand and isn’t pre-packaged. He mentioned different meals objects are additionally cooked by hand and finished a sure manner.
One other hallmark of the Tsehay expertise is consuming with out silverware. Clients choose up the meals with their fingers and eat it.
When clients new to that consuming method elevate issues, Yirdaw factors out different customs at some eating places.
“Once you go to a Chinese language restaurant, you utilize chopsticks,” he mentioned. “Utilizing your fingers to eat is the best factor you are able to do. We have now loads of napkins in case you want them.”
The tibs that consist of varied meats comparable to beef are supplied to the shopper, lamb and beef stews and the vegan mixture platter—a favourite of Thism— affords six dishes to be sampled at one time.
Vempati, Thism’s pal, was impressed along with his go to to Tsehay, talking properly of the service and the tastiness of the meals.
“This place is superior,” he mentioned. “The meals was filling, and it’s a good place to have a meal.”
