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Julianne Yoon/Daily. Buy this photo.
In honor of Black History Month, The Michigan Daily’s Business beat spent the month speaking with Black business owners in the Ann Arbor community about their experiences and stories. Read the other articles here.
Decorated with vibrant paintings and frames, and a blue, red and gold-painted ceiling, Blue Nile Ethiopian Restaurant has offered an array of traditional Ethiopian fare to the Ann Arbor community since 1989.
The original Detroit location, which was founded by Seifu Lessanework in 1984, moved to Ferndale and remains open to this day. The original Ann Arbor Blue Nile opened in 1989, and its current location opened in 1995. It is now co-owned by Seifu’s sister, Amalz Lessanework, and her husband, Habtewold Dadi.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Dadi said the early stages of the business were difficult, as they needed to adapt to the cultural differences of doing business in America.
“Ethiopian culture is different from the West’s,” Dadi said. “We started the business from scratch. Eventually, we learned the Western or American style (of business). Now we serve Ann Arbor and the surrounding area. It was challenging, but then in practice (we were) successful.”
Despite the challenges of opening the business, Dadi said the support from the Ann Arbor community has led the restaurant to where it is today.
“Running a business in Ann Arbor is fantastic,” Dadi said. “The people are extremely, extremely gorgeous people. They’re fantastic — very helpful. Without the help of Ann Arbor (community members), we would not have been successful now.”
Dadi said the COVID-19 pandemic brought on a new set of obstacles for the business, which had to close for three months. They were eventually able to reopen, thanks to customer support.
“(The pandemic) was a very tough time…we closed for some period of time but people came for carryout,” Dadi said. “We appreciate our customers, they didn’t give up on us and kept coming.”
Rackham student Zachary Eichenberger told The Daily that dining at Blue Nile always feels very warm and intimate.
“It really feels sort of like you’re inside someone’s home a little bit because it’s just very warm, very friendly,” Eichenberger said. “I’ve never had a bad experience there.”
University of Michigan alum Amy Westfall said she first discovered The Blue Nile in 1990, and since then it has been her favorite restaurant.
“I don’t think at the time I appreciated just how great it was relative to other restaurants,” Westfall said. “But since then, (my family) had Ethiopian in multiple places in New York, D.C., L.A., Baltimore and the Bay Area, and, to me, (Blue Nile) has the richest flavor.”
Westfall said the owners go out of their way to ensure their customers feel appreciated, something she experiences every time she orders her favorite spice tea from Blue Nile.
“One of the things that I love is the spice tea,” Westfall said. “You can’t get that anywhere. And they’re so nice, I call them up and I can order it and they’ll ship it out to me. It’s not like they’ve got some kind of shipping set up. It comes in a box and they clearly packed it all up themselves and they just are so nice about it.”
Dadi said the staff and owners try to give customers a quality dining experience every time.
“We treat them as family rather than as customers,” Dadi said.
Dadi said one of the reasons he loves running the restaurant is that it provides the opportunity to share his culture with customers. The owners work to ensure the customers get to experience authentic Ethiopian cuisine by bringing recipes, ingredients and traditional cooking methods from Ethiopia.
“(We typically) follow a traditional Ethiopian recipe we got in the country, and we brought here,” Lessanework said. “We use the same spices, which are produced by Ethiopians. (When) we’re cooking here, we do everything from scratch. We don’t use any frozen items here.”
Dadi said getting to where they are with the business today took a great deal of persistence, and hopes other entrepreneurs will not shy away from challenges.
“We encourage everyone to run a business without giving up,” Dadi said. “If they continue patiently, I think they can succeed.”
Daily Staff Reporters Miles Anderson and Violet Boyd can be reached at milesand@umich.edu and viboyd@umich.edu.
