Now, at last, Addis Red Sea has a new location in Cambridge's Porter Square, in the former Indian Club space. The moment they posted their plans in the window, the calls started coming in as to when they would open.
So, with a soon-to-be-expanded menu and a half-finished décor, they opened last month, and lines have been spilling out the door.
Dramatic red, floor-to-ceiling curtains make the street seem a continent away as you walk inside. For now, it's a mish mash décor where chandeliers cast their glow on a giant straw umbrella shading the bar, and white linen-decked tables sit under Ethiopian scenes painted on animal hides.
Soon, though, most of the tables will give way to traditional, round, straw tables called mesobs.
As we sipped tropical juices ($3.25), our gracious waitress presented us with warm towels so we could cleanse our hands. Then, a large communal platter lined with spongy, crepe-thin injera flatbread arrived and our server carefully spooned little mounds of our entrees onto it.
What comes next is one of the finest ways to break bread with friends. You leisurely tear small squares of injera and use the bread to pinch bite-size servings of your meal (no forks here) until you get to the best part: scooping up and devouring the sauce-soaked injera that served as your plate.
Though the spicing at Addis was less bold than we hoped for, there was plenty to like nonetheless. An appetizer of ayib begomen ($5.95) laced the creamiest cottage cheese with a drizzle of "nit'r qibe," a luscious clarified butter spiced with ginger, garlic, cardamom, and clove. Both the timatim green salad ($5.95) and ye-miser ($6.95) warm lentil salad hopped with the bright flavors of lemon, red onion, and just enough hot pepper to tickle the tongue.
