Star Bukri\u2019s Restaurant and Catering stands as a tribute to the late Bukri Yirgu and 35 years of Ethiopian flavor.<\/p>\n
GARLAND, Texas \u2014 A Garland restaurant known for its Ethiopian cooking is temporarily closed after a vehicle slammed through its front wall and window Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Video obtained by WFAA shows a car plowing into Star Bukri\u2019s Restaurant and Catering, a longtime community fixture off Shiloh Road. The crash happened around 4 p.m., just as the business was closing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were closing. Two customers had just gotten up and walked out \u2014 five minutes later, he crashed,\u201d owner Daniel Kassahun said. \u201cHe said he tried to stop, but he must have hit the gas instead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kassahun said the crash was accidental and that no one was seriously hurt, though his son and an employee were only a few feet from the impact.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son was there \u2014 inches away,\u201d he said. \u201cThe counter came through the kitchen. Everything crumbled right in front of them. But no one was hurt, and that\u2019s what matters most. Cars and walls can be replaced; human beings cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kassahun founded Star Bukri\u2019s in 1989 in Los Angeles before moving the business to Garland in 1993 with his late wife. The restaurant \u2014 part market, part catering kitchen \u2014 focuses on Ethiopian cuisine such as injera made from teff grain and richly spiced stews developed by his late wife, Bukri Yirgu, a professional chef.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe came up with the sauce nobody else could make \u2014 from scratch, with her own spices,\u201d Daniel said. \u201cThat\u2019s what made our food special, and that\u2019s the legacy she left for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bukri died of COVID-19 in 2021 after more than a month in the hospital. Her husband and their children have continued running the restaurant ever since.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when my wife passed away, we kept it open \u2014 because this is her dream,\u201d he said. \u201cNow it\u2019s our responsibility to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kassahun said the crash happened just as the family planned to celebrate 35 years in business. He expects to reopen after insurance and repairs are complete \u2014 even if that means starting small with take-out service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll definitely reopen \u2014 stronger, better, with full energy,\u201d he said. \u201cLife goes on. What started as her dream is now the legacy we carry forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Star Bukri\u2019s Restaurant and Catering stands as a tribute to the late Bukri Yirgu and 35 years of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[160,162,161],"class_list":{"0":"post-1866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-plano","8":"tag-plano","9":"tag-plano-headlines","10":"tag-plano-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}