Ethiopian restaurant Zehabesha is about to complete a whole decade in Yellowknife.
Owner Dinku Tadesse said the family business has had its share of ups and downs since first opening its doors on November 6, 2014.
Tadesse had moved to the city from Winnipeg in 2010 and worked at what used to be Extra Foods downtown.
He switched to driving taxis in 2012, then decided to start his restaurant at 5030 50 Street two years later.
“From there, we were struggling. Nobody knew about the restaurant. Nobody eats the cultural food, Ethiopian cultural food,” Tadesse recalled.
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Despite having to battle through the initial years, Zehabesha managed to stick around. Tadesse said he and his wife breathed life into the business “step by step” as it gained popularity among residents.
Tourists soon helped keep the spot busy – until the restaurant suffered the fresh blow of Covid-19, when travel restrictions wiped out tourism.
“The business [was] almost dead. We closed for a long time – three months or two months after that,” he said.
With help from the territorial government, the restaurant started recovering financially.
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Even so, Tadesse said at times he could only just afford the salaries of the four or five employees that worked there, and did not make enough to earn a profit.
As the pandemic made “everything expensive,” increasing prices on the menu was also not an option when some residents were facing layoffs and others were forced to move out of the city.
Tadesse said he and his wife were “working for free” and trying their best to keep going. Then they faced last year’s wildfire evacuation, which caused supplies of meats like beef, chicken and goat to go bad. After a month away in Edmonton, Tadesse had to discard every expired item on his return.
“Still, we are here,” Tadesse said.
“We are going to try to celebrate a 10-year anniversary. It’s going to come.”
Tadesse said the plan is to distribute gift cards and prepare traditional coffee and bread early next month. He said he remains unsure how long Zehabesha can stay open but, for now, sharing his love for traditional Ethiopian food with the city makes him happy.
“Most of the people, they like our food. It is nice and tasty. We are proud to achieve that kind of a thing,” he said.
“Most of the restaurants – some of them two months, some of them six, or one year or two years – closed.
“We are here for 10 years. We don’t know how long it is going to continue. Still, we are proud of that.”
