When I first saw that Allentown was landing an Ethiopian restaurant, I couldn't quite believe it. It was just prior to the Allentown Art Festival when a sign went up in the window of 69 Allen Street broadcasting the opening of Gatur's Ethiopian Cuisine. It wasn't long ago that Buffalo welcomed its first Ethiopian restaurant in Black Rock, and here was another, completely different, Ethiopian Restaurant coming onto the scene... for fans of the cuisine this was certainly good news.
Gatur's is a family-run restaurant. I spoke to two of the family members - sisters Iman and Faiza Gatuk - who told me that they were going to be bringing a number of different Ethiopian foods to Allentown. "Traditional Ethiopian food varies from tribe to tribe," they said. "While we will prepare the food to the customer's liking, we tend to like the spicier dishes. We're going to be bringing some of the best Ethiopian food to Buffalo, in a sit-down restaurant with traditional music and homemade offerings. While we will be concentrating on traditional dishes, we're also going to be incorporating some other tastes from around the world in order to show how Ethiopian food can actually be versatile - using different rices and breads for example, instead of just the Injera (spongy bread used to dip and scoop the various stews and salads)."
Gatur's will be open for both lunch and dinner, and if all goes according to plan, the family would also like to open for breakfast - to once again show that the offerings can vary greatly not only from tribe to tribe but also at different times of the day. Besides food, there will also be traditional coffee and tea, plus refreshing drinks. The sisters hope to have the restaurant up and operational by the middle of July.
I heard that there is one opening up on Bailey, too. Or is this the same one and they decided on Allen instead?
Mike's Ethiopian and American Food. 3355 Bailey (punting distance from Pho 99) Really nice folks, delicious food, but ambience is a bit lacking.