Family and food: New Lexington restaurant celebrates siblings’ Ethiopian heritage
.jpg "The menu at Ethiopian Family Kitchen includes items served on injera bread including red lentils, green beans and carrots and cabbage and potatoes cooked with Ethiopian spices.")
Fans of Ethiopian food, there’s a new restaurant to try — but only one day a week for now.
Ethiopian Family Kitchen opened a few months ago in Greyline Station on the corner of North Limestone and Loudon Avenue.
Operators Simon Bond and his siblings, Grace and Manny, prepare the food in the Julietta Market community kitchen.
And they serve a limited menu every Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., or whenever the food runs out. And it does, pretty much every week.
“People in Lexington have been waiting,” said co-owner Simon Bond. “It’s exciting but overwhelming.”
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There was an Ethiopian restaurant in Lexington briefly many years ago, and Bond said they wanted to bring that food back.
Although there is no true brick-and-mortar restaurant, customers can either take their food and go, or you can stay and eat in the Greyline’s courtyard area.
Simon Bond and his siblings are Ethiopian natives, and they wanted to find a way to share and honor their culture.
What’s on the menu at Ethiopian Family Kitchen
Ethiopian cuisine is “unique stuff you won’t find within an hour and half of Lexington,” Bond said. “We use our Ethiopian spices. It’s got a kick to it.”
Ethiopian food is spicy, Bond said, served with spongy bread called injera.
“Injera bread is very unique, has different texture and taste,” Bond said. “The bread is spongy, you rip off a little piece and scoop the bread and eat as a whole. That’s what makes it good is the sides, especially the saucy stuff. It soaks in and gets the flavor.”
Bond said that they serve a beef dish called Sega Wot, a chicken dish called Doro Wot and several vegetarian and vegan sides including Fosoliya, green beans and carrots in spices; Tikil Gomen cabbage and potatoes; Misir Wot, red lentils cooked with Ethiopian spices called berbere; and Kik Alicha, yellow split peas.
They hope to add more, but the menu depends on how much time they have to put in in the kitchen.
All three work full-time jobs: Simon is a mail carrier in Frankfort, Manny is a truck driver and Grace is a nurse. But they decided to open a restaurant in their free time.
“We want something for our family, a foundation, for our future families,” Simon Bond said. “And to keep our Ethiopian culture around us. And give people different options, something unique.”
Simon said he spends Saturday at working delivering mail then heads to Sam’s and starts prep work. Sundays, they start cooking.
“I enjoy it. It’s something we really want for our family and the community as well,” Bond said. “For healthy food and a different type of culture, we want everyone to be treated with respect and feel like they are family to us, to feel safe around us and that they are not judged.”
Ethiopian Family Kitchen
Where: 101 W. Loudon Ave., in Greyline Station
Hours: Sunday only, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. or until the food sells out
To order: Text to 859-3385824
This story was originally published August 20, 2024 at 4:59 AM with the headline "Family and food: New Lexington restaurant celebrates siblings’ Ethiopian heritage."
