“When I was hired for my first job as a host, I went into the restaurant and I looked at the place and I said, ‘One day, I’m going to own a restaurant like this,’” Mariam said.
After years spent finishing school, getting married, raising a family and working in nearly every position available in the restaurant industry, that dream became a reality in 2008, when Mariam moved to Austin with her family and opened Taste of Ethiopia in Pflugerville.
Taste of Ethiopia’s traditional Ethiopian dishes are served in a large pan placed within a woven basket shared by the entire table. Customers use a kind of thin, spongy bread called injera to pick up the food by hand.
The dishes, most of which use Mariam’s own family recipes, commonly feature ingredients such as beef, green beans, lentils, cabbage, lamb, chicken, collard greens and potatoes prepared using traditional Ethiopian spices.
“It’s kind of hard to choose a favorite because almost all of them are my favorite, but I like the lamb tibbs and the goat and the kitfo,” she said.
Mariam runs Taste of Ethiopia alongside a crew of six employees, most of whom are family members.
The restaurant has amassed many regular customers in its 13 years, Mariam said, so when COVID-19 hit, Taste of Ethiopia received the support it needed to make it through the stages of the pandemic that were toughest for small businesses.
“They will order to-go; they will come and pick up; they will do whatever it takes to make sure that I stay open,” Mariam said. “My regulars are just amazing. They are family.”
Mariam said for her, cultivating those lasting relationships with customers is the most rewarding part of running Taste of Ethiopia.
“I want you to feel like you’re coming to our house,” Mariam said. “That being said, you’re going to enjoy the meal because we know how to cook it. The entire experience will keep on bringing you back here.”
Taste of Ethiopia
1100 Grand Avenue Pkwy., Ste. 100, Pflugerville
512-251-4053
www.tasteofethiopiaaustin.com
Hours: daily, noon-9 p.m.
