The Best Ethiopian Spots In The DMV

0:00Today on CityCast DC, Ethiopian food may be the most DC cuisine of all. The DMB is the capital of Ethiopian America and for 50 years, eating Ethiopian has been a comfy, affordable Washington tradition. But over those years, the scene has become richer, more diverse, a lot more innovative. My guest, Ike Allen, is the author of a new guide to local Ethiopian dining. He is here to give us some highlights. Today is Thursday, September 10th. I'm Michael Schaefer. Here's what DC is talking about. Hey, Ike, welcome. Hey, Mike. Thanks for having me. So listen, man, Ethiopian food is like a staple in DC. There's been a huge Ethiopian population here for 40 or 50 years. But I don't know that I've ever read or it's been a very long time, at least, since I've

1:00read a comprehensive guide like the one you did. It treats it as like a vibrant, evolving cuisine. So I know you are from DC, you grew up eating Ethiopian food from time to time. But what's you do to make yourself an expert who can write a guide like this? Yeah, I mean, I guess I'm still not a complete expert, but I, I, I, I went to dozens of places. I mean, I, I think I've been to probably at least 30 Ethiopian restaurants around the DMV. I think we must have more than a hundred. I'm not sure exactly how many we have in total. But we have, you know, 200,000 Ethiopian people living in the DMV roughly. And we're so lucky to have this Ethiopian food scene. I mean, like, I would say it's certainly the best in the US. We have the largest Ethiopian population in the US. So it makes sense. I have sometimes like told people that I don't think there's really a bad Ethiopian restaurant in the DMV. I'm not sure if that's technically true, but I haven't had a meal here in Ethiopian restaurant that was

2:01utterly disappointing. And maybe that's just because you're an easy mark, I might be an easy mark, but I kind of think if you have bearbara spice and lentils and, you know, fried beef or stewed chicken or something with the right spice mix, like it's, it's going to be okay. You know, there may not be as much variation in these restaurants as there is in some kinds of restaurants, but I tried to search for variation and what places do better than other places and kind of pin down the specialties of each restaurant. Let's back up for a second. You said DC has America's largest Ethiopian population. Can you give us the quick and dirty version of the history there? Like, how did the city become the sort of capital of the Ethiopian America? Yeah, I mean, my understanding is after the derg, the military hunt that took over Ethiopia from basically overthrew Emperor Highly Salassi in 1974, I think it was. That kind of sparked an exodus of migration from Ethiopia to other parts of the world.

3:02There was a lot of there was a lot of repression shortly after that. There was just turbulent political moment. And why exactly a certain group of Ethiopians picked DC is something that is a little bit of a mystery to me. I'm not sure if someone knows the answer to that, but there was a sort of group of Ethiopians who settled in Adam's Morgan around that time, sent late 70s into the 80s and kind of coalesced around there and then later around Eustrete and what's now called the L Ethiopia, like, I guess it's ninth street, just south of Eustrete. You know, rents were inexpensive and people opened little markets and restaurants. There were certain businesses that Ethiopian immigrants got into in the DC area like parking lots. That's been the case for a long time. And then, you know, over time, once you have an established community, it just keeps growing. And that's where you know, it's chain migration. What is like the epicenter of Ethiopian DC? And I'm silver spring. It's very dense with Ethiopian restaurants.

4:05Like everyone, people have spread out throughout the region. People moved away from the city as they made more money, et cetera. Yeah. I mean, I think the two best places to eat Ethiopian food now in the DMV are silver spring, especially like just off Georgia Avenue. And then I would say the other, my other favorite spot is there's this strip mall and false church. It's called Build America Plaza for some reason. And it's just like an entire really large strip mall where almost every business is in Ethiopian restaurant or Ethiopian market. And that kind of anchors a community around like false church Alexandria area. That's also one of the best spots to find great Ethiopian restaurants. But you know, DC still has a lot to of course. For people who don't know, can you give me like the sort of basics of Ethiopian terminology? Like what are tips? Tips is basically like sort of fried or like sauteed meat. So you can have beef tips, you could have lamb tips, doratips, chicken tips.

5:08And what's Berbera? Berbera is a spice mix. It's got it'll have like some Ethiopian cardamom. It'll have chili. And then there are as many different recipes for it. And for a lot of the different spice mixes in Ethiopian food as like there are families is sort of what I've been told. Like people have many variations on it, which is one of the reasons that you know, Ethiopian food never gets old to me is the kind of every restaurant will have its own slightly different seasoning mixes that it uses for different vegetables and different meats. Pretty much every Ethiopian meal is going to come with Injera in some form. Usually serves on top of Injera this big, you know, sort of sourdough flatbread with rolls of Injera on the side for scooping it up. And if you've been to an Ethiopian restaurant, you've probably done that. I noticed the last time that I ate Ethiopian meal with you, they had two options on the menu for Injera. There was one with an upsell that used I guess a more hard to source type of flour.

6:09Yeah, Tef. Tef is a grain that is native to Ethiopia, which has become a little bit of like a health food fad here too, but it's totally. It's the traditional grain you would make in Jera with in Ethiopia. Usually a restaurant that serves both 100% Tef in Jera and a mixture of Tef flour and wheat flour in Jera. The the ladder is made at local bakeries here in the DC area and there's a number of them. There's one on Kennedy Street actually that where you can just go up and buy in Jera from a window. The 100% Tef flour in Jera is typically imported from Ethiopia. I'm not sure why that is, but it's kind of a good sign if you walk into a place and they offer you that choice. I've noticed I've always had an exciting Ethiopian meal after that. Can we just talk on Beans too? Because in my mind, at least the classic Ethiopian restaurant scene is almost always quite informal.

7:09The food is served on a great big platter with whatever you've ordered on it on top of bread and you use your hands. Is that sort of the rule or are there places that take on a more like white tableclothy proper vibe? Yeah, I mean, I've seen sort of they run the gamut now. I feel like in DC, you know, like you can go to Hobbisham Market on 9th Street and it's pretty much what you just described. It's very informal. You order it a counter there actually, which is somewhat unusual, I would say, for an Ethiopian restaurant here. Like it's sort of fluorescent lighting and it feels like you're in a little deli or corner market. And they're open late. Ethiopia, which is fairly new, I think it opened last year on Eustreed, is very, very much about beyond Beans. They have those little individual lamps on each table, which kind of cast a nice light on everything. It's dimly lit in there. They have kind of a distinctive graphic design look. And there's a couple other places like that.

8:11Makeda in false churches like that too. So even the suburbs have the full range too. I think it just comes down to like what the restaurant tour is after. But there's enough people who want a fancier ambiance now. But it's still no matter what you're eating communally, you're eating you're pretty much sharing with your table probably and you're eating in Jair. For a lot of people who grew up in DC or you know, came into eating Ethiopian food here, it is sort of at least for me, it's I think almost in like a sentimental way, right? That this is something I have like associations with going back. But you know, the flip side of that is people often cuisines that fill that role in their lives. People often treat as sort of static as if like no innovations happening. And you know, and it's kind of insulting in the sense that he would never treat a highly respected cuisine that way. But one of the nice things about you've written is you actually treat it as dynamic evolving. People are incorporating new technologies, new spices or access to things that you couldn't get very easily in this country before, as well as like inevitably because we're now 50 years into Ethiopian migration to Washington.

9:17You've a lot of people in the kitchen. I assume actually grew up here and and have just sort of different culinary memories. Can you give us an overview of sort of what's changed within Ethiopian food? Yeah, I mean exactly as you described, I think there's sort of two channels to it. There's on the one hand, restaurants serving things that just you now have a critical mass of people who know what they are and who want them. And so a restaurant will start catering to that. So Nazareth, for example, in this place, build America Plaza, it's in Northern Virginia, serves a selection of different kinds of beef tibs that is vast. I mean, I think probably a dozen different kinds of tibs. Some of them are raw beef. Some of them are like a big piece of ribeye season with rosemary. Just like, whatever you think of when you think of like beef tibs, the variation on it is huge there. And that's something that just like, I don't know, I would venture to say 20 years ago, it would probably have been hard to find in the US.

10:19Do you have a favorite of those? The shins tibs, that's the ribeye. It's amazing. And then the seasoning, the meat mita, which comes with it, which is like the sort of seasoned, like spicy, salty powder is one of the best accompaniments to grilled beef that you can have, I think. What about the raw? What are they? The raw? Yeah, I mean, if you like steak tartar, you can enjoy kit foe, which is basically like a minced raw beef. You know, you may have had it in any of the restaurant. So is there like an acid or something that is used to effectively cook it? I mean, so they use like a spiced butter usually to kind of dress it. I think it's great. Teresiga, which is like these bigger like slabs of raw beef can be a little intimidating. I will admit that I'm not used to eating like a big hunk of raw beef, but people season them up and dip them in like a spiced butter. And it's, you know, it's, it's definitely a favorite. You may have plays like share share or Ethiopeke on H street. They serve a selection of vegan dishes too that are traditional on fast days, Ethiopeke in Orthodox

11:21Christian calendar. They have like I think 250 fast days, 250? Yeah. Out of 365? A lot of the year are fast days in an Ethiopeke in Orthodox calendar. And so just as much as people love eating beef and stuff, people are very used to eating vegan. There's a dish, Shembras, which you can find at Ethiopeke in a few other places. It means chickpea fish. It's not fish. It's meant to imitate fish. And it's, you know, this kind of like chickpea fritters in a stew. And that's something that is really satisfying that vegan food. You know, these are things that, you know, if you're Ethiopian, they're pretty much part of your annual calendar of food or they're part of your traditional food. But, you know, they're not like, I don't think that you'd see them on a restaurant menus here if these restaurants weren't catering to a community of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopian people here. Then there's also restaurants that are, which I think also indicate how kind of well-established the community is here. Places like Buena Coffee House or Dorosol food, which do more fusion kind of.

12:26So Dorosol food, Elias Tadesse, he's got this restaurant right next to the 930 Club. Basically fried chicken, got like sides, classic kind of soul food, southern sides, mac and cheese, collard greens. But they're all done with Ethiopian spices. The cornbread is made with nigella seeds. The fried chicken is, it has this kind of, looks a little like Nashville hot chicken. It's got that like spice butter coating, but it's got bearbara seasoning in it. And then, you know, heat the spot and ice and slice, which recently were written up by my friend and competitor, Melazar Santeg, or both on Georgia Avenue. They're both kind of these little cafes that, you know, you can order classic Ethiopian dishes there. You can also get Ethiopian pizza, Dorowat pizza, ice and slice. What's in Dorowat pizza? It's like a stewed, Dorowat like stewed chicken with Ethiopian spices and hard-boiled eggs. That seems not compatible

13:27with pizza eating. You know, they don't overdo it. There's just enough. Can you pick up the slice, sir? Are you knife-and-forking it? I'm not going to lie. It is one of the messier slices of pizza I have had, but it's not. You can pick it up. I picked it up. So you listed a bunch of places in your guide of the ones you listed, which is the one that sort of hues closest to the kind of classic DC Ethiopian restaurant model? If I were to pick one Ethiopian place to send somebody, and it is pretty much a classic DC Ethiopian place, is Betta-Sub. I take people from out of town there a lot. It's in Silver Spring. It's just over the border from DC, North West DC. It's kind of right in the middle in terms of how casual it is. You can go there for breakfast, and it sort of feels like a diner. I've noticed when you're there earlier in the morning, it's mostly Ethiopian people. Having their breakfast, having either ful, which is like the phaba beans, or different kind of egg scrambles with Injera. And then later on in the day, I mean, in the evening, you have your full

14:30spread. They have one of the best sort of crispy sizzling platters of beef tibs there that I've had anywhere. And that is, you know, a totally mixed Silver Spring diverse crowd. It sums up Ethiopian dining in DC to me really nicely, because it's still catering to that community, but it's everyone loves it. All right, so let's flip that around then. If that's where you take a new B or someone to get this sort of classic model before you start bearing the theme, what about you've got someone who thinks they don't like Ethiopian food or thinks like, yeah, I've seen that all before, and you want to surprise them. I would have to go for like Boone a coffee house, also on Georgia Avenue, but further down in Petworth. That's a place where you can get Ethiopian breakfast also. And I kind of think breakfast is something that will surprise people who haven't had it before. You have this like steamed barley dish, kinche, then you have really like delicious scrambled eggs

15:30with jalapenos and tomatoes in Jera too, but you know, people, a lot of times if somebody thinks they don't like Ethiopian food, they have an issue with the texture of in Jera. That's just like, I've noticed that's what people bring up. If they have triptophobia, they might have a little fear of the tiny holes that form when in Jera's cook. I can sort of understand that from a visual perspective, but I've had way too much of it to ever fear the texture anymore. But that place is great too, because you can have like your a great cup of coffee or good smoothie there. It's kind of, again, it feels a little like a neighborhood diner or cafe, and you can, you know, there's just such a range there. So you could try a little bit of Ethiopian food and then just have like your eggs have much or whatever too. So me, I really like Ethiopian food, but I almost never eat it. And that's partly because I'm married to a trip to Fob, who's afraid of all those little holes in the Jera, but it's more often

16:32because I have this idea that like, okay, I will eat an Ethiopian meal if I'm not planning on eating for another day, because that bread is going to be expanding in my stomach, you know, for hours and hours and hours. And it's just going to be whatever it is, however delicious it is, it's going to be huge and heavy and daunting. What should I do or where should I take someone if that is their concern and they're looking for something sort of smaller, more manageable? I mean, I eat a veggie combo at an Ethiopian restaurant all the time. That's something I'd probably have, even before I was working on this, I probably had that once a week just because I'm a Washingtonian. If you have that, you're having a really affordable plate. Like, I can't think of another restaurant dish that is that affordable that gives you that many different vegetables. And you're eating all this fiber. I mean, it's a really healthy meal. You have like this sourdo fermented bread. You've got collard greens, a couple different kinds of lentils, chickpeas, a salad. I don't know. I kind of think you could probably eat that pretty regularly. And maybe

17:35you just go for the one portion of Injera and you don't ask for more. They will give you more for free. But maybe you just kind of stick to the first plate. I don't know. That's something I eat so regularly. And I think it's one of the sort of more manageable, healthy restaurant meals I have. So you mentioned Doro Soul Food. Does like Ethiopian span on fried chicken. You mentioned Iceland's slice, which is doing Ethiopian pizza. Are there other places that are kind of pushing the envelope in interesting ways? I'm not sure how much they're pushing the envelope. But it's something that was totally new to me. Neguse winery in Alexandria. They make meat, which is called Tedg in I'mhark. And Ethiopia, it is honey wine. They basically dilute a little bit of honey and ferment it. It's made it. It's very simple to make. And to me, it's called honey wine. It reminded me more of like cider or like a slightly sweet beer. It has this kind of nice funky fermented flavor. And there is a sweet kind and a dry kind. And so you can actually go that

18:36they they provide, you know, this honey wine to Ethiopian restaurants around DC. And if you've ordered it at like share share, then you've probably had theirs. But they also have a tasting room where you can go and get like a charcootery board with salami and cheese and engera crisps and lentil sumboussos and taste the sweet ones, taste the dry ones. That was a new experience for me. They opened, I guess it was about two years ago. And I went down there and talked to the owner. He had been a limousine driver in Napa Valley when he first came to the US. And started realizing that his dream would be to open a wine tasting experience. And so he thought, you know, what better way than to have Ethiopian traditional wine? So we're going to put your guide in the show notes. But just to talk to you, you know, you do this great feature hidden eats where you're going out to places often in distant suburbs that are serving food a lot of people might not have heard of because these are not exactly places with big marketing budgets. In the world of Ethiopian food

19:40in Washington, where do people sense things are going? You've depicted this sort of classic American immigration pattern, right? People come to this country. In this case, often as pleading politics, get jobs, you know, like parking lot attendance, things like that, open restaurants. But then their kids grow up here and maybe, you know, get to go to college in this country and maybe don't feel like schlepping to a parking lot or you have the long hours and risky finances of a restaurant. Is there a sense of like who's doing the cooking? Where it's going to go? Where's for that matter? Where has, you know, Ethiopia itself has changed dramatically. It's a lot of economic development. So I assume the culinary culture there has changed with it. What's it going to look like in 20, 30 years? Yeah, I mean, I don't know if I can speak to Ethiopian 20, 30 years. There's obviously a lot of development dissolves. Also, a lot of turmoil going on in northern part of the country. And it's in DC, I think, you know, yeah, as with a lot of restaurants run by immigrant families

20:43that I've written about, it's like, you know, sometimes the kids will be interested in running a restaurant like their parents did other times. Their parents chose to open a restaurant because that's what they could figure out how to do, you know, when they first got to the US. And maybe they weren't restrioters by trade. Maybe that wasn't, you know, their original passion. And their kids might not be interested in maintaining the restaurant. So, you know, there are these like newer places, you know, run by kind of younger Ethiopian Americans, the ones of Georgia Avenue that I mentioned, keep the spot, license lights. I do wonder with Ethiopia food and with other cuisines that are really well represented in this area, like who's going to take up the torch? Sometimes I, you know, grew up with a lot of Ethiopian American kids who some of them, some of whose parents, you know, ran restaurants and stuff. And I'm not sure that any of them are interested in going to the restaurant business. So, that is kind of a question. And then let me just bring you back to the past before we go. You grew up in Washington,

21:46as you say, you grew up with a bunch of Ethiopian kids. Do you have like a mad lamb of Injera? Like, was there like a first, I think the lady found out with Ethiopian food? I think Karen, they're actually Eritrean, but on you and, I guess it's technically on Florida, right where kind of you becomes Florida there by 18th Street. That's probably the first place I had, some of these dishes. It's the first place I ever discovered sort of East African breakfast foods. And those have kind of remained one of my favorites. They closed for a couple years recently. They had a fire in the kitchen and then they just reopened last year. And that was very heartening to me because I thought they were maybe gone for good. Also, up a little bit further on 18th Street to high. Both of those are like, they're holding it down and Adam's Morgan, which was like this original Ethiopian kind of commercial strip in DC, which hasn't been the heart of it for a while. But I think those were sort of the, I think, you know, exploring 18th Street as a

22:46high school student and trying all the restaurants. That was where I first kind of was exposed to those dishes. There was also a place next to the Howard feeder, Zennebatch, which then moved to 18th Street. I missed that place. That was a great place. But that may have been my Madeline moment, actually. Mike, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Mike. Appreciate it. And that's all for today here on CityCast DC. If you enjoyed this show, why not tell a friend, rate the show, leave us a review, and subscribe to our Morning Newsletter. We will be back tomorrow morning with more news from around the city. Bye.