On the corner of Broadway and North Treat Avenue, Zemam’s Ethiopian Cuisine and Zerai’s International Bar make up Tucson’s growing Z-Street International Marketplace.
“If you crave Ethiopian food, there aren’t very many substitutes. And so if you crave it, you got to eat it, which has kind of been good fortune for us,” said manager Lucas Gebremariam, son of the owner who started Zemam’s more than 30 years ago.
Gebremariam’s father, Amanuel Gebremariam, opened the original Zemam’s in a house in 1993 on 2731 E. Broadway. Gebremariam has memories of growing up in the restaurant with his family, recalling pitching in to help out.
“Every time if I had somebody spend the night at my house, that Saturday morning, they would have to come to the restaurant and chop onions or peel potatoes,” Gebremariam said. “You know, when family needs you, you got to be there. A lot of times, I don’t think my dad even needed out help. He was just so busy that he just wanted to spend time with us.”
“I was in third grade and, you know, seeing it go from a five table restaurant to being able to accommodate almost 150 to 200 people is a crazy thing,” Gebremariam said. “It’s cool how Tucson has embraced us as a family and as a restaurant. When we opened in ’93, there was nothing close to any kind of African food. It was always Chinese food, Mexican food, Thai food. But Tucson really embraced us and was very excited and curious about trying this food, which I think, in a lot of other cities, we would have probably been closed in a year.”
Zerai’s opened last month, and Gebremarian said the bar is his passion project. Zerai’s serves beverages such as cocktails with a locally made Ethiopian honey wine and Ethiopian beers as well as handheld bites such as hand pies and Ethiopian tacos, which Gebremariam described as a handmade taco tortilla with injera bread inside and the filling of the person’s choice combined to create a textural and flavorful experience.
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