Selam Gossa opened Tsehay in Adams Morgan in 2019 and named it after her mother, who raised four children in Ethiopia while grinding her own berbere and making every spice by hand rather than buying it. That standard carries into the kitchen here.
There's no cutlery on the tables — injera, made from fermented teff, is plate, utensil, and bread at once, torn by hand to scoop dishes like kitfo (hand-ground beef, served raw by house recommendation), slow-cooked ye beg wet, and beef or lamb tibs sautéed with shallots and jalapeños. A full vegan section runs through shiro, misir, gomen, and kik alicha, alongside house-made ayeb cheese and awaze hot sauce. Twice a year, for Ethiopian Christmas and Easter, the kitchen prepares doro wat — a two-day process — and serves it free to every guest.
Regulars describe the room as warm and hospitality-driven, with the gursha tradition of feeding others by hand still part of how the table works here.
There's no cutlery on the tables — injera, made from fermented teff, is plate, utensil, and bread at once, torn by hand to scoop dishes like kitfo (hand-ground beef, served raw by house recommendation), slow-cooked ye beg wet, and beef or lamb tibs sautéed with shallots and jalapeños. A full vegan section runs through shiro, misir, gomen, and kik alicha, alongside house-made ayeb cheese and awaze hot sauce. Twice a year, for Ethiopian Christmas and Easter, the kitchen prepares doro wat — a two-day process — and serves it free to every guest.
Regulars describe the room as warm and hospitality-driven, with the gursha tradition of feeding others by hand still part of how the table works here.