Meskerem closes marking the end of an era for Ethiopian dining

Restaurant openings are essential nutrients to food writers. We can’t survive without a few juicy coming-soon scoops, filled with all manner of detail about chef, cuisine, decor, investors and anything else we can squeeze out of an available source.

Requiem for an Adams Morgan original: Meskerem has called it quits after 30 years.

But what about closings? How often do we offer more than a dashed-off tweet to acknowledge the passing of a beloved restaurant? I mean, for every CityZen closure, there must be a dozen others that never merit a word from the Food Media Complex, many for good reason. But Meskerem in Adams Morgan was different. It didn’t deserve to die without a proper eulogy.

The establishment had been holding down the same address on 18th Street NW since the mid-1980s (some say 1985, others say 1986) when its owners were among the first waves of Ethiopian immigrants who fled after a Marxist military junta overthrew the emperor in 1974. The East African newcomers quickly established a foothold in Adams Morgan, which was the unofficial Little Ethiopia long before savvy Ninth Street restaurateurs lobbied for the name in 2005.

The Post’s archives are littered with references to Adams Morgan as a haven for Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees, although perhaps not always a safe one. Tensions between Ethiopians and Eritreans, who waged a three-decade war, could spill over to the restaurants and cafes in Adams Morgan.

[The $20 Diner finds an Ethiopian oasis in Silver Spring.]

Back in June 1991, former Post staff writer Carole Sugarman, now food editor and restaurant critic for Bethesda magazine, wrote this about the displaced African politics of Adams Morgan:

Eritrean Desble Mesghenna, owner of Alla Scala restaurant on Florida Avenue, says that Ethiopians will eat in the upstairs section of his restaurant, but not downstairs, which is called the Eritrean Cafe and serves the same Italian menu.

Desble says that many local Eritreans have spent time at the restaurant celebrating the recent military successes. “They open champagne. They dance,” he said. “The Ethiopians don’t dare come and laugh with the Eritreans. Some people raise politics. They don’t like that,” Desble says.

Like so many people who flee war-torn countries, formerly prominent Ethiopians were sometimes reduced to kitchen labor in Washington, just another immigrant working the stoves to keep Americans fed. Again from Sugarman’s 1991 story:

The former chef at Meskerem restaurant was the wife of an Ethiopian general. And the retired chef at Fasika’s restaurant was the wife of Brig. Gen. Teferi Benti, who was the head of state following the overthrow of Haile Selassie.

Upon hearing the news of Meskerem’s shuttering, food writer Shulie Madnick recalled on Twitter her own brush with Ethiopian politics when she dined there many years ago:

The politics and people of these Adams Morgan restaurants likely hovered below the radar of the average American diner who frequented the joints back in the 1970s and 1980s. For many, these establishments offered locals their first taste of Ethiopian cooking, in which colorful shiros and wats were served on injera flatbread that doubled as an eating utensil. Meskerem, in fact, remained an entry-level experience for diners almost to the day it closed, judging by its last Yelp reviews.

During its peak, Meskerem was considered not just one of the best Ethiopian restaurants in Washington, but one of the best restaurants period. In her 1991 list of 50 favorite restaurants, Phyllis C. Richman wrote, “Just order a combination platter so you can sample the chicken, beef, lamb and half a dozen vegetables. Not only do you get to taste all the best, it is arranged like a palette, with a range of vivid colors any artist would be glad to settle for. The range of tastes is every bit as vivid.”

Ten years later in 2001, when I first walked into Meskerem as a freshly transplanted Texan, the place was still a vibrant outpost for Ethiopian cooking. My memories of the meal have entered that no man’s land between truth and romanticized fiction. Mostly I remember ordering honey wine and hating the person I was forced to talk to, a classic wonk who thought I was some hick from Houston. In retrospect, it seems a fitting introduction to Washington and one of its iconic cuisines.

Meskerem Ethiopian Cuisine Vegetarian combo

As Adams Morgan transformed into a party zone in the 1990s and 2000s, the nerve center for the Ethiopian community shifted to the U Street corridor, mostly along Ninth Street, and then fanned out toward the suburbs. Perhaps because it was catering to a new kind of diner, and not just Ethiopian expats, Meskerem lost favor among critics as the years went by. Wrote the Post’s Tom Sietsema in his spring 2011 dining guide:

Doro wat — chicken and a hard-cooked egg in a cloak of typically searing berbere sauce — is a celebratory dish on its home turf, but you might not get that from sampling Meskerem’s version, which is shy on the heat. I’ve also found gored gored, strips of raw or rare beef traditionally rubbed with red chili paste, to be vanilla (and chewy) going, as if the kitchen were cooking for tourists.

Perhaps my sentimentality is showing, but I wish Meskerem could have gone out on a higher note. I wish we could have properly thanked the owners for all their contributions to D.C. dining. Kristen Barden, executive director of the Adams Morgan Partnership, tells me the company that bought the former Meskerem building plans to install another restaurant there, although there’s no word on what it will serve. Calls to the new owner were not immediately returned.

Barden also notes there are still a few Ethiopian restaurants operating in the neighborhood, including Awash at 2218 18th St. NW and the Adams Morgan Coffee Shop 2204 18th St. NW, which recently added Ethiopian dishes to its menu.

So, yes, Adams Morgan has not separated completely from its rich Ethiopian history, full of sound and fury and fitfit. But with Meskerem’s closing, the neighborhood’s connection to that first wave of war-weary immigrants appears to be severed forever.

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