✦ The Name
“Slit down, peel all the garlic, shave it, lay it out to dry with black seed — and then grind.”
— Selam Gossa, recalling her mother Tsehay’s kitchen lessons
00 — Our Story
A mother’s kitchen.
A daughter’s dedication.
Growing up in Harrargie, Ethiopia, Tsehay — the second eldest of fourteen children — learned to cook before she could read. She ground berbere by hand, tended a garden in Addis Ababa, and made every spice from scratch — never buying what she could make herself.
She opened a café, raised four children, and taught her daughters the full art: the patience, the precision, the standard. When Selam opened this restaurant in Washington DC in 2019, she named it after her mother. Not as a tribute. As a promise.
Our Traditions →