“The first owners were friends of mine,” Gebreselassie says. “I used to live in Washington, D.C., and had a restaurant there, but when they passed away, their sister told me that if I wanted to come back to Texas, we could run the restaurant. I decided to go.”
The restaurant is owned and operated by friends and family of Yared and Yenni. Honoring their mission, Desta uses natural Ethiopian ingredients and traditional cooking methods to maximize cultural authenticity.
“Our ingredients are homemade, organic and all come from Ethiopia. We don’t buy ingredients here, except meat,” Gebreselassie says.
Most dishes are served family-style and food is traditionally eaten with your hands. Many of their signature dishes reflect this standard, including the veggie combo with tegabino shiro (a split yellow pea stew), miser (a spicy split red lentils) and atkilt alicha (cabbage with carrots and onions) ($17.99). The weekend special, mahberawi plater, features kitfo (rare minced meat), lega tibs ( goat, lamb or beef stew), gomen (greens) and vegetables ($59.99).