Please join us for dinner and jazz on Wednesday, February 27 at T's Place, 2713 E. Lake St. Minneapolis.
We stopped in the other night at T's Place, the Ethiopian-Malaysian fusion restaurant a couple of doors down from the Town Talk Diner, to check out Yohannes Tona and his band. I'd read a piece in the Twin Cities Daily Planet by Dwight Hobbes that described Ethiopian-born Tona as "the baddest bass guitar player in the Twin Cities."
As luck would have it, Tona was off gigging in Las Vegas, but we weren't disappointed: his replacement was an amazing Cameroonian guitar player named Kenn Wanaku, who led Tona's regulars in a couple of high energy sets that ranged from reggae and merengue to Congolese soukous and West African hilife, with a little Paul Simon and Bob Marley thrown in as well.
The only sour note was that the place was nearly empty. So Carol and I decided, we have to get a bunch of friends - and Breaking Bread Readers - together and come back and make an evening of it: Tona and his band play (almost) every Wednesday night. So we are scheduling our little get-together for a week from today - Wednesday, February 27.
Carol and I will plan to arrive by 8 p.m., and the music starts at 9:00.
T's Place offers a unique menu - a combination of traditional Ethiopian dishes, served on a tray covered with injera (a pancake-like flat bread), and some Malaysian-Ethiopian dishes that chef T Belachew invented when he was a chef-partner with Kin Lee at Singapore!. For menu details, check the website. Prices for food and drinks - they have a full bar - are very reasonable, and there is no cover charge for the music.
We're asking everybody to order - and pay - for themselves, though you are very welcome to follow the Ethiopian custom of eating from a shared tray.(With your fingers, if you really want to be authentic.)
Please email me at iggers@rakemag.com, if you plan to attend. Or just show up.
We have eaten at T's place 3~4 times, and the food is simply phenomenal. Having eaten at many of the local Ethiopian restaurants, we find the food here to be wonderful. Their food is better than many of the other (sadly defunct) Ethiopian eateries.
The vegetable sampler is to "die for", with very generous portions of six items--greens, cabbage and potatoes, green beans and carrots, and three different types of lentils-- all served on injera.
This time, we ordered a beef dish cooked with onions and jalapeno peppers. Unlike many other dishes, this was served in a bowl because of its accompanying gravy. With the first bite, you thought "this is what beef is meant to taste like", and the second bite introduced you to the flavors!
On previous occasions, we've had the beef (or lamb) tibbs.
For the more adventurous, there is a version of steak tartare, and lovers of "heat" can ask for extra bere-bere sauce.
For $10 per dish, there is always a very generous portion, and lots for leftovers!
It is the kind of place that a group of people can experiment with multiple dishes, and know that even if one item is not to their liking, the rest of the items will please their palates.
They also have Sam Adams, Guinness, Summit, and Miller beers on tap, along with the live music your article described.
Definitely worth revisiting!