Said Roberto’s new venture at Enssaro Café
on November 20, 2017
Said Roberto was born and raised in Ethiopia. In 1980 he moved to Yemen, where he played professional soccer for more than 10 years until he was injured and came to the United States for medical treatment. He decided to stay. In Detroit, Roberto worked in a Greek restaurant and learned how to cook. “If I have the food, if I talk good, if I share what I have, everybody can come to me. It’s the only key I have,” he says. Roberto’s mother’s father was from Sicily. “I’m Ethiopian, Arabic, Italian, so I connect,” he says.
Roberto came to California two years ago and worked as the chef and manager of the Rimy Mediterranean Grill. He didn’t like the neighborhood, so when the opportunity arose to cook at Enssaro Café on Grand Avenue, he took it.
Click through the images below a photo essay of Roberto’s life and cooking.
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- Less than a month ago, Roberto partnered with Nesanet Tamirue and her family (who run Enssaro, a popular Ethiopian eatery) and Fadoe Arahimi, a local businessman, to start serving food at the café.
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- Roberto calls parsley “medicine” and recommends eating it every day. He also believes in the healing properties of people gathering. “When we drink tea, share our opinion, that makes life easy more than medicine,” he says.
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- Arahimi describes Roberto’s as Yemeni, while Roberto defines it as Mediterranean. “You can’t really pin-point and say it’s from here or there,” Tamirue says. “It’s his own.”
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- Tamirue has over 10 years experience running Enssaro Restaurant. When a deliveryman from the mobile takeout service Grubhub arrives with an order, Roberto is taken by surprise. He quickly fills the order and Tamirue phones Grubhub to figure out the most efficient way for Roberto to receive orders.
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- Speaking Amharic with Roberto, Tamirue guides him through the Grubhub application on the tablet. Tamirue was born and raised in Oakland. Her mother and Roberto come from the same generation in Ethiopia.
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- Bonnie Wilder, retired from an accounting firm, is one of the only customers at Enssaro Café who doesn’t take out a device. She spends more than an hour enjoying her latté and The New York Times.
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