click on the title to jump/go to the review:
1. Tajitu, a Master of Ceremony
-- by Washington Post
2. Culture, flavor found at Tajitu
-- by The Gazette
3. Ethiopian restaurant opens downtown
-- by The Frederick News-Post
4. Frederick strong for restaurants
-- by The Gazette
5. Radio Review
-- by Free Country 99.9 WFRE
6. FredNet - Frederick, MD Blog
-- by frednet.blogspot.com

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Tajitu, a Master of Ceremony
By Eve Zibart
July 8, 2005 Washington Post (website)

So many restaurants these days make a point of exotic or escapist decor. Though exotic, to be sure, Tajitu, a meticulous and welcome Ethiopian outpost in the heart of Frederick, takes the opposite and most traditional of tacks: It does its best to make customers feel as if they were guests in someone's home.

Although the front lounge and middle dining room of this former diner have table and booth seating, the backroom has been made over to resemble an open-air gathering place, with straw matting overhead, hourglass stools and round-topped tables, lanterns and weavings on the "posts," and a few musical instruments and portraits of honored rulers hung about. Dining in this transplanted gazebo is not only a reminder of the hospitable traditions of this ancient nation but also that in a fast-food world, a leisurely meal with friends can be a special event.

The ultimate example of Tajitu's desire to recreate a culture is the coffee ceremony, which is a more appropriate term for it than mere service. Long needles (plastic, but meant to evoke the fresh reeds that would be customary in Ethiopia) are scattered on the floor by the table as a bed for a tray of small coffee cups. The beans are freshly roasted in the kitchen and the skillet brought to the table; it smells sharper and spicier than the oven-roasted coffee most Americans know. Then it's ground, covered in water -- the water is not boiled, but gets its heat from the beans -- and steeps until the waitress pours it in a deliberate stream from several inches above the tray. It's rich and complex, a subtle reeducation from the country where coffee originated. (Expect this to take a little time; remember, this is a social activity, not a franchised pick-me-up.)

The staff at Tajitu is altogether unusually articulate and gracious, eager to extend a sense of custom to novice diners. In addition to the menu itself, the restaurant presents patrons with a short explanation of Ethiopian food and how to eat it, complete with visual aids -- i.e., photos of desirable finger technique. More intriguingly, the notes also politely mention things that are considered rude and that might inadvertently offend Ethiopian sensibilities, such as licking the fingers or sticking them into the mouth rather than lifting a neat morsel to the lips.

The Tajitu cheat sheet also suggests that it's not considered polite to take a bite from another's stew or whatever is placed in front of another diner. That makes traditional sense: The large disk of injera is first a communal tray and only at the end becomes bread for eating. It's designed to bring friends together but also provides a kind of personal space. But separation of flavors runs counter to the American instinct to taste and share. You can, if you're neat enough, treat someone you're particularly close to by serving them a morsel yourself, taking particular care not to touch their mouth with your hand, but that may be more intimate than you want to get. In any case, the staff is kind enough to overlook small lapses.

Tajitu makes its own injera, not of tej but still a particularly delicate sour buckwheat version; it comes out already torn into four-inch-wide strips and rolled up like Ace bandages. The berbere sauce is better than the norm, not just a chili paste but aromatic and lightly bitter with brown spices; it's dolloped out for each diner individually (again, reinforcing the concept of communal but distinct dining). The dishes are not served too hot, at least for newcomers, but even the moderated recipes waft up a variety of spices -- the high-nosed whiff of white pepper, the woodier ginger, stony mustard seed, grassy-fresh green jalapeños and citrusy green chilies, sour red onion -- that many lazier Ethiopian restaurants shrug off.

Nor, as is also too often the case, do all the main dishes have the same consistency, and here again the staff is unusually considerate. One night, when several dishes ordered would have been cooked in too-similar fashion, a fact not obvious from their descriptions, the chef came out to recommend a substitution: yabeg wot alicha , lean fresh leg of lamb cut in small cubes and sauteed with a little onion in gingery-garlic niter kibbeh (like the Indian ghee , a clarified butter).

Shrimp wot, whole medium shrimp sauteed with salt and white pepper and then turned in a light tomato sauce, were just cooked through. Doro wot , the national dish of Ethiopia, is the traditional portion of one chicken drumstick and one hard-boiled egg in a gravy-like onion sauce. (Solicited for advice on how to address these largish items, a waitress says, smiling, "Smash them," and, squashed down with injera, both break into more manageable bits.)

For those more serious heat-seekers, the hot peppers stuffed with a sort of sauteed salsa is the obvious starter. Kinche is a relative of tabbouleh, wheat bulgur with parsley, tomatoes and bell peppers. Key sir salad is a potato-beet blend, while the Ethiopian potato salad takes the German style for a ride, a tangy, lemony relish with chilies.

There are more than a half-dozen vegetable entrees in addition to the salads; you can choose five or just let the kitchen give you a pretty complete sampler. Both yellow peas and lentils are good, soft but still textured; the salad version, called mesir azefa , is worth replicating at home, spiked with chopped onions and jalapeños and dressed with a ginger-white pepper lemon vinaigrette. The cabbage ( tikka gomen ) and collards (gomen) are blander than the menu suggests, but there's the berbere if you like.

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Culture, flavor found at Tajitu
By Carol Lewis
November 23, 2004 The Gazette (gazette.net)

Thousands of years of culture have come to Frederick. The Tajitu Ethiopian Restaurant, open for two months, is located at 9 Patrick Street. Don't be fooled by the Snow White Grill sign. The owners are waiting for clearance to put up a sign of their own. In the meantime, the family/owners are making a museum of the Snow White items that were left when the restaurant was vacated. Flavor would best describe this new restaurant, as there is exceptional flavor in the décor, food and atmosphere. When we entered, quiet Ethiopian flute music filled the air, and a lady in a traditional hand woven dress seated us. She asked us if it was our first time at the restaurant, and when we told her it was, she informed us that the buffet was the only choice at lunchtime. She then led us to the buffet table where she eagerly explained each dish. Gleaming chafing dishes with glass lids and spotless aluminum buffet serving dishes, allowed us to see each item on the buffet. There were also small cards with a brief description. But, her friendly "tour" was the most helpful. The first item on the buffet table was Injera, a crepe like bread that is an essential part of an Ethiopian meal. It is made out of Teff, which is a cereal grain rich in protein, complex carbohydrates, iron, calcium and potassium. Indigenous to Ethiopia, the grain is now being grown in the United States. It is the custom to tear a piece of Injera off of a large piece, hold it flat in your hand, place the Injera over your choice of food, grab and hold the food and eat the whole scoop, called Gursha. Gursha means mouthful. It is also the custom to place the food in another's mouth as a gesture of affection. In a secluded, small dining area in the rear of the restaurant, diners can be seated on low stools at tables that resemble large baskets. When the lid is removed, there is an area on which to put a large tray of Injera. Food is placed all around the bread, and more is served on the side. Pieces of the extra bread are shared, and at the end of the meal, the large piece of Injera has soaked up all the delicious juices from the food. It is quite a delicacy. This style of dining is called Messob. Here the sharing of the bread is more customary, and is done traditionally between husband and wife or among friends and relatives. This is a time of bonding. It would take some time to adapt to this type of eating. The wait staff returned to our table several times to ask if everything was satisfactory, or if we needed anything. When we asked for forks, they obliged, telling us their main concern was that we enjoyed the food. For $10.50, the all you can eat buffet is served from 11:30 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. Included with the buffet are special salads. The most unusual salad was the cold lentils with Jalapeno peppers, red onion, lemon and olive oil. Exotic plants are used for some of the spices. Some are subtle and others robust. The most common spice is Berbere, a mixture of red pepper, ginger and garlic. The most common Ethiopian entrée is a stew called Wot. The choices include poultry (Doro Wat), beef (Siga Wot), or vegetarian (Yemisir Wot). The day we had the buffet, which changes daily, two types of beef were included. One was prime beef, cooked in onions, ginger, garlic, purified butter and the special Berbere seasoning. The other was more mild, as it did not contain the hotter seasonings. A delicately flavored fish stew was the third entrée. One of the more unique side dishes was cabbage (Tikel Gomen) cooked in vegetable oil, onion, fresh garlic, ginger roots, potatoes and a special blend of Ethiopian spices. Collard greens (Gomen) with onions and peppers and spiced with peppercorn and cardamom was another side. I returned later to speak with Nuru, and was treated like royalty by gracious, friendly people. At that time, they offered me many of the dishes I had not been able to try on our first visit. Two that were extraordinarily tasty, were a pastry filled with either ground beef and spices (Yesiga Sambusa), or lentils, onions and green peppers in the same pastry called (Yemisir Sambusa). The Tajitu Restaurant offers a special coffee ceremony, which we were fortunate to witness. It is the consensus of historians and botanists alike that coffee (Kaffa) was first discovered in Ethiopia. The coffee ceremony can be compared to tea time in England. It is a time for family, friends and neighbors to sit, relax, talk and share a beverage. Green grass (Goosgwab) indigenous to Ethiopia, is placed on a small tray (Reketot) with cups (Sini) and a clay coffeepot. Around the rim of the cups and plates is a picture story of the Queen of Sheba. Green coffee beans are placed in a roasting skillet (beret metad) and as the beans roast, the server walks by the tables and coaxes the smoke toward the diners to tantalize the senses. The coffee is extracted from the beans and then served to the participants. In Ethiopia, this service can take several hours. If you prefer to dine from the menu for dinner, entrees range in price from $9 to $19.50. The décor of the restaurant has been carefully planned. Bamboo chandeliers and wall sconces lend subtle lighting to the dining areas. Pictures of life in Ethiopia adorn the walls, and there are display cases containing mementos of the culture.

My intrepidation about an unknown cuisine turned into pure admiration and appreciation for wonderful food and experience. When you try Tajitu, I hope you will have the same feelings.

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Ethiopian restaurant opens downtown
By Ed Waters, Jr.
August 30, 2004 The Frederick News-Post

FREDERICK — Ethiopians developed their styles of cooking and eating during thousands of years, and now that unique cuisine is available in downtown Frederick.

Nuru Befekad, part of the family that has opened Tajitu Ethiopian Restaurant at 7 and 9 E. Patrick St., said many people from Frederick are familiar with Ethiopian food as they have dined at some of the restaurants in Washington.

"We are the only one in Frederick. The next closest is Silver Spring," said Mr. Befekad in the dining area of the remodeled restaurant, which once housed the Snow White Grill.

The customer is greeted with artwork, bamboo wallpaper, bamboo chandeliers and fire-resistant grass on the bar and in decorating eating areas.

"Ethiopians have been in the U.S. for 40 years, many in the D.C. area," Mr. Befekad said.

"This is a nice place, there is lots of history here," he said of Frederick, noting the history of Ethiopia. The African country fought to keep its independence for centuries and was only "colonized" for a short time by the Italians during World War II, Mr. Befekad said.

Part of Frederick's history will be kept alive at Tajitu with a Snow White Grill Museum.

During a tour of the restaurant, Mr. Befekad pointed out a room where blue and white Snow White Grill signs, menus and other items from the former eatery are being stored and eventually will be organized into a museum for the restaurant that was located at 7 E. Patrick St. for many years.

One historic fact that stands out is that coffee was first discovered in Keffa, a province of Ethiopia. Legend has it that a goat herder saw his animals eating a certain type of berries and found that after eating them himself, he got renewed energy. Monks dried the berries so they could be transported easier to distant monasteries and later put the dried berries into hot water and drank it.

"That is where the name coffee comes from, Keffa," Mr. Befekad said.

The dining areas, which seat a total of 76 guests, feature traditional tables and chairs in the front part and Ethiopian style in the rear area -- seating on stools with pillows and subdued lighting.

The unique eating style means no forks or spoons. Instead, customers use injera, a velvety bread similar to a large crepe or pancake. Using a grain called teff, it is made into sour dough and then baked in an earthenware pan.

The typical meal is a variety of stews ----Doro Watt (chicken stew), Key Watt (beef stew) and Tibs (fried meats), as well as a variety of vegetables. The customer can request whether the stews are spicy or not.

When served, a large injera is spread on a plate and the food is placed on that. Diners break off pieces of the injera and make a "pocket" of the bread and use that to pick up the food.

"Eating is a family, social event in Ethiopia," said Mr. Befekad. Everyone eats from the same main food platter and it is considered "an act of affection" to pick up some food with the injera and place it in the mouth of a fellow diner.

As part of the eating "ritual," guests wash their hands courtesy of a pitcher of water provided by the server and again at the end of the meal.

"It is a great eating experience," Mr. Befekad said.

A buffet lunch is available and the restaurant offers bar service.

A grand opening is set for Sept. 4, Mr. Befekad said.

The restaurant is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, he said. For more information, call 301-631-6800.

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The Gazette
Frederick strong for restaurants
by Kevin M. Smith
Sep. 3, 2004

Frederick, which already boasts a vast variety of locations to purchase comestibles, with more than 200 restaurants, bars and food take-out locations in the city and its outskirts, is adding more.

In the last four years, 13 new restaurants have invaded the desirable downtown area bordered by East, Bentz, All Saints and 7th streets, which now has 40-plus dining establishments. Most have been open at least five years. Three more opened this year, including two in the last month: the Wishing Tree Café on E. Church Street by Shab Row, and Tajitu, an Ethiopian restaurant in the former Snow White Hamburger Grill building on E. Patrick Street. The new downtown eateries opened in a relatively strong market. According to researchers at Ohio State University, about 60 percent of independent restaurants fail in their first three years; 26 percent fail in the first year alone. Frederick's downtown restaurants have a much higher success rate: Only 36 percent of the 11 restaurants that opened in the previous five years have failed, well below the national average. Several factors contribute to this success rate and the city's ability to provide a sustained customer base, said Kara Norman, executive director of the Downtown Frederick Partnership. "We have a strong daytime workforce of over 3,000 people in downtown, a large retail community that supports the restaurants around them, three theaters that draw a lot of people downtown -- a lot of people wrap their evening out to a show around eating," Norman said. "And over 12,000 people live within half a mile of the downtown square. Certainly Frederick's high employment rate contributes. When people are employed they have more disposable income to use on recreation." Not all downtown locales are created equal, however. "It's all location," said Michael Harrison, proprietor of Café Anglais in the 200 block of N. Market Street, as he pointed to the former locations of the Kinfolk Café and Starz Kabob House. Those two restaurants, both on N. Market Street between Third and Fourth streets, plus a third downtown restaurant, closed in the last couple of years. "Between Second and Third is not great. Between Third and Fourth is lousy," Harrison said. "Kinfolk was in a terrible location and Kabob had conflicts with the landlord." Location played a roll for the owners of the Wishing Tree and Tajitu. "There's a large population from Frederick that travels to D.C. for Ethiopian food," said Nuru Befekadu, manager and co-owner of Tajitu. "There is no Ethiopian restaurant in Germantown, none in Gaithersburg -- the closest one is in Silver Spring. There was no special purpose to our choosing [the former Snow White Grill]. It just happens that it was the right place [available] at the right time." A bit more off the beaten path, the Wishing Tree's owners are banking on its proximity to downtown's other trendy shopping center, Shab Row, and becoming a neighborhood staple. "We looked at places on Market," co-owner Shawn Morris said. "But they would have cost a lot to bring the locations up to" restaurant standards. Morris, with co-owner and fiancée Kate O'Leary, hails from a restaurant background. O'Leary is a former culinary manager with Olive Garden and an assistant general manager with Bertucci's, while Morris' entered the culinary trades in a pizza kitchen when he was in high school. "I think our potential here is good," said O'Leary, who points out that the Wishing Tree has already garnered regulars despite the ongoing Church Street construction. "People on Church Street love it," she said of their 3-week-old endeavor. "They feel like it's theirs. We're a part of their community." Charles Kidd, who is co-owner along with Wayne Miss of the year-old Canal Bar and Grill where South Market Street meets Carroll Creek, recommends that the other new restaurateurs "have plenty of money. They're going to need it." The Canal, which opened in May 2003, experienced slow traffic until word got around -- in October, almost six months after opening, he said. "It was slow getting off the ground, but you've got to expect to be slow," Kidd said. Success may be breeding success for downtown restaurants, said Heather Galbraith, an economic development specialist with the city. "Market Street has become known as a restaurant row," Galbraith said. "On a Saturday night, there's a wait everywhere." Many of the new restaurateurs are guided by the business adage: "Find a niche and fill it," whether it's Ethiopian cuisine, in the case of Tajitu, or relatively inexpensive gourmet food, in the case of the Wishing Tree. "There aren't many low-end dining establishments in town," said O'Leary, pointing out that it's easy for a couple to spend $80 on dinner in downtown Frederick. "I think our menu is different but approachable," she said of her café's fare, which includes gourmet specialty pizzas and paninis. Harrison of Café Anglais partially attributes his success to niche marketing, pointing out that his little storefront is the only place in Frederick where a customer can get what he calls "authentic British food." Despite some of the recent failures -- including Asiana, Kinfolk and Starz --downtown restaurateurs don't seem worried about saturating the market. In fact, the owner of Brewer's Alley brew pub is part owner of two of the nearby restaurants that opened in the last four years, Acacia and Isabella's. The trend isn't abating. Plans have been approved for the conversion of the old mission at the corners of South and South Market streets to include a restaurant there.

The prevailing attitude among the city's downtown restaurateurs was summed up by Befekadu: "As long as we work hard, we can make it. There is a wide opportunity here."

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Step back to a culture thousands of years old, Tajitu Ethiopian Restaurant will take you to another world and you won’t need your passport. A Truly exceptional dining experience, dine in traditional tables and chairs or immerse yourself in the culture with Ethiopian style seating in the rear of the restaurant. The only restaurant in Frederick where eating with your hands is encouraged. Enjoy exotic dishes such as Doro Wott or Tibs with injera bread. Located at 7 & 9 East Patrick Street, Tajitu Ethiopian Restaurant is open seven days a week serving lunch and dinner.
By
Free Country 99.9 WFRE

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Saturday, September 04, 2004
News: Downtown Restaurants and Other Businesses