Ethiopian businessman finds success with Yod Abyssinia restaurant chain
By Samuel Getachew
In the busy streets of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, it seems every second house is a business. The streets are filled with aspiring business people trying to sell you cheap products imported from China. Second hand clothes are everywhere as countless café’s have literally stolen the unique characteristics of the beautiful city. Constructions are everywhere yet public washrooms are scarce. Charity organizations (NGO’s) are by the thousands yet destitute beggars are everywhere.
In all of this madness, the beauty and generosity of the people are legendary. The cultural wonder of the country, as the only country that was never colonized among African countries, is reflected in many unique ways almost in all areas of the cities collective journey. The best place to experience the best Ethiopian hospitality, as is the case in Toronto, is in the heart of the many local Ethiopian restaurant establishments.
One such place in Addis Ababa is a chain restaurant named Yod Abyssinia owned by a great young entrepreneur named Tezazu Kore. One of his locations, a stone’s throw away from Bole International Airport, is so grand that tourists flock just to experience the cultural mega it has become. In recent weeks, the president of South Korea, Lee Myung-bak, was a visitor and became an instant fan.
Tezazu Kore is a humble and charitable leading businessman in Ethiopia. Not only has he strived with every challenge he had faced to open such a successful business enterprise but has grown to an entrepreneur giant he has become. Many describe him as ambitious, patriotic and determined but I am sure, no one can dare describe him as being quixotic.
Before I had a chance to visit Yod Abyssinia, I had the impression that it was an average cultural restaurant like that that is found all over Addis Ababa. However, Yod is unique. Its walls are decorated with great diverse artifacts from all over Ethiopia, exposing diversity in people and culture through local art. On any given night, there is always a full band playing traditional music with in-house talented cultural dancers dressed in wonderful costumes. The washrooms are modern and are wheelchair accessible, unlike many restaurants in Addis.
The staff members at the restaurant are courteous and knowledgeable. To complement them, almost every night, Mr Kore, is known to go around the restaurant introducing himself and making sure that every guest feels the great hospitality of Yod and Ethiopia.
As I was admiring the establishment at a recent visit, knowing I was from Canada, Mr Kore invites our table to a reception he was hosting the following day.
The event was an inauguration of a much-needed enterprise within Ethiopia: a travel and tourism business. It is the latest entry in a collection of businesses owned by Mr Kore, including two restaurants, a spa, a fitness center and an eventual cultural hotel that he hopes to build in the near future. Literally, there are hundreds, from all walks of life, who have come to celebrate the work of a local business icon.
In person, Mr Kore is tall, elegant and generous. He almost swallows you with his gigantic hands when he shakes your hand. When shaking those hands, I could not help but wonder all the trial and tribulations those hands must have been under to come to the accomplishments that we have all been invited to celebrate at this particular evening. He is a man of few words and lots of practical actions that can be referenced in seconds.
The emergence of Mr Kore in the hospitality industry began in earnest at the end of his long career with Ethiopian Airlines more than 20 years ago. Taking all his savings he had accumulated over the years, he opened his first restaurant. This was a small cultural restaurant that he named Yod, a biblical term meaning, “success gained from great wisdom”.
That burned down taking almost all of his investment with it but never his spirit. He scouted yet another restaurant location and opened yet another restaurant. That establishment was lost when the area was needed for a larger business interest.
When most would just give up and look elsewhere for guidance, Mr Kore went scouting for yet another location and opened another restaurant in the Bole area, near Brass Hospital, where the now infamous restaurant is located. He has not looked back since.
His signature restaurant, YOD Abyssinia Bole, seats more than 500 customers and the reception hall, Yod Rohobot Salon, can serve up to 200 guests. The hall is usually used for weddings and receptions by the diplomatic corps. Every night, it’s almost full to capacity.
On a daily basis, there is a full band preforming all kinds of traditional music and cultural dances. It also serves delicious Ethiopian cuisines coupled with traditional drinks such as Tej (Ethiopian honey wine) and traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony(Ethiopians are proud of the long coffee ceremony as Ethiopia is the birth place of coffee).
There are approximately 232 employees working for YOD Inc with attractive benefits and salaries that are almost always above the average within Ethiopia. Each year, he rents buses to have his employees travel to many parts of Ethiopia believing, as the people who are more engaged to customers in such a retail way, the least he could do is have them experience the wonder and beauty of his beloved homeland paving the way for them to be great cultural ambassadors.
On a typical night, the restaurant seems to resemble any successful restaurant in multicultural Toronto with tourists and locals from every corner of the world. As Tezazu Kore looks ahead with a plan to open an authentic cultural hotel in a few years, I could not help but wonder what it would look like.
If Yod Abyssinia restaurant is any indication, it would be a cultural extravaganza worth a visit. In many ways, Mr Kore is on a patriotic journey that is transforming his city, country – one business at a time.
Images courtesy of YOD Abyssinia
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