The Red Sea which lies off the coasts of Africa and Saudi Arabia is about 7,000 miles away from Charlotte but it’s actually closer than you’d think. Almost 6 minutes away from East Meck, located on Monroe Road, is a family owned business called Red Sea.
Red Sea’s cuisine is a mix of traditional Eritrean and Ethiopian Food, not a kind of restaurant that is commonly found.
Senior Meruon Tesfazgi’s family has owned the restaurant since 2001. Originally located in the Metropolitan area, the Tesfazgi family decided to move to a bigger location on Monroe Road.
“My parents decided to open a restaurant to spread diversity and knowledge of the Eritrean and Ethiopian cuisine,” Tesfazgi said.
The Tesfazgi family immigrated from Asmera, Eritrea to the United States in the late 90’s giving her family a chance of opening a restaurant.
“It was originally my dad’s idea to open a restaurant,” Tesfazgi said. “One of his favorite things about living back home in Eritrea is definitely the food. So he wanted to share that to the Americans and show them the kind of food he loved to eat.”
Reading the menu for the first time will definitely be confusing for a customer who is not familiar with the Eritrean and Ethiopian culture.
“One of the most popular items is the ye beg tebs, which is cubed lamb” Tesfazgi said. “Another popular item is tsebhi derho which is just chicken legs.”
When eating at Red Sea it is common for a meal to be on top of injera. Injera is a spongy flatbread that is essential to the dining experience. When it comes to sides a customer can choose lentils, beets, green beans, collard greens and silsea (a spicy tomato based sauce).
Learning the menu wasn’t hard for Tesfagzi since she grew up with this cuisine her whole life. She started working at her family’s restaurant at the age of 15.
“Working at Red Sea has definitely gotten me a lot more connected with my culture and practices,” Tesfagzi said. “I’m more familiar with the language than my peers who don’t speak it as fluently as I do.”
Red Sea is one out of about 5 traditional Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants you can find in Charlotte.
“I feel like a lot more people know about Ethiopian culture than you’d expect because of the customers that decide to try new foods,” Tesfagzi said. “If anybody wants to learn more or get a feeling about what my culture is like then my restaurant is good for that.
For example, a customer didn’t know that when an Eritrean couple gets married, the wife doesn’t take the kids surname, but their kids do and their middle name will be their dad’s first name. Teaching a customer that kind of thing made me remember why I love my family’s restaurant so much.”
