MARYLAND, USA – Ethiopian natives living in Hyattsville no longer have to travel to Washington, D.C., or Montgomery County to get a taste of home with the opening of Shagga Coffee and Restaurant last summer.

Zewdi Tsegay of Burtonsville, who works near the Hyattsville restaurant, said the food is delicious and authentic.

“It’s home,” said Tsegay, who is Ethiopian, about why she visits Shagga. “This area needed to have an Ethiopian restaurant and [needs] more ethnic restaurants.”

With their restaurant sitting just north of the coming EYA Arts District Hyattsville, Shagga owners Kelem and Adama Lemu hope it will be a good fit for the development that’s set to come to the Route 1 corridor.

Also scheduled to open at Arts District Hyattsville are Busboys and Poets and a Thai restaurant.

“We didn’t see any other Ethiopian restaurants in that neighborhood,” said Kelem Lema. “The area needed us – or we needed it.”

Her husband said they hope to benefit from the residents and businesses that will come with the redevelopment of the Hyattsville area.

“We’re assuming it will create business for us. Plus, we’re the only Ethiopian restaurant in the area. I’m pretty sure we’re the first in P.G.,” he said.

Adama Lemu said they hope to be a neighborhood restaurant where residents will come with their families.

He said they also plan to install wireless Internet for their customers in the near future.

Shagga, which Adama Lemu said is a variation of “better” or “good” in his language of Amharic, began as a coffee shop in June but the Lemas saw that their customers wanted more than Ethiopian coffee and sambusas – a traditional appetizer made of dough shells filled with vegetables and either chicken, beef or lentils. They decided to add a full restaurant and bar a few months later.

Kelem Lemu said she and her husband decided a few years ago they wanted to open an Ethiopian restaurant somewhere near their Berwyn Heights home.

“I’ve always loved to cook,” said Kelem Lem, who cooked most nights at home. “I learned from my mother. She was a good cook. And I also learned some things at a few restaurants where I worked before.”

Kelem Lemu trains all of Shagga’s cooks herself, while Adama Lema, who also owns an airport transportation service, said he stays out of the kitchen.

“Sometimes I cook [at home] but my food is not like hers,” he said of his wife.

Kelem Lemu said she decided to fill the menu with typical authentic Ethiopian food.

For breakfast, the restaurant offers traditional Ethiopian fare like firfir (a beef stew in red pepper sauce) and kinchu (crushed wheat with butter and chili powder) and even egg sandwiches to go with its house blend Ethiopian coffee – Shagga Harar or other coffee drinks.

“I wanted it to make sure it was like real Ethiopian cuisine,” she said.

Bags of the coffee are also available for purchase. Shagga offers a $6.95 lunch special from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday that Kelem Lemu said has been very popular.

Dinner entrees include a number of chicken, lamb, beef and vegetarian dishes.

Kelem Lemu said besides sambusa appetizers, one of the most popular dishes is kitfo ($11), which is steak tartar seasoned with chili powder and herbed butter served raw, medium or well-done.

Alice Smith, who recently moved to northeast Washington, D.C., from Baltimore, said she just stumbled upon the restaurant while in search of a nice, local, eat-in restaurant last week.

“It’s important for me to eat local, but there are not many restaurants that aren’t franchises around here,” she said.

Tsegay also said she is glad to have a little taste of home so close to her office. She said she usually gets her favorite Ethiopian dish, yebeg tibbs – a lamb dish, when she visits Shagga.

“They lived up to my expectations and then some,” she said.

Shagga Coffee and Restaurant
6040 Baltimore Ave., Hyattsville

Phone: 240-296-3030

Hours:
Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.;
Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Saturday, 7:30 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Sunday, 8 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Dining Review by Maya T. Prabhu | Gazzette.net

9 p.m.