YIRGALEM
RESTAURANT

Owners Yeshareg Demisse and Daniel Teferra, Yirgalem means "let the world be a stable and peaceful place" in Amharic, the name is also that of a village south of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia's capital).

Ethiopian meals comprise a variety of flavorful sauces and vegetable dishes. Yirgalem emphasizes low fat and low cholesterol meals, and uses extra virgin oil flavored with house seasoning for all its cooking.

Ethiopian sauces and vegetable dishes are served on injera (Ethiopian fermented crepe made from teff - a nutritious and iron-rich grain originally from highland Ethiopia). Yirgalem's injera is made from teff flour, naturally fermented without using any yeast.

Ethiopian food is eaten with fingers. Traditionally, in Ethiopia, one does not eat food alone or in a separate plate. Food is generally eaten in a group sitting around a wide serving basket, feeding not only oneself but also hand-feeding (giving gursha to one another) especially guests, as an expression of love & hospitality.

The Daily Cardinal
Yirgalem: A little bit of Ethiopia on Monroe Street
- By Katrina Peterson

"One of the best things about Madison is that although it is surrounded by farmland, its restaurants represent cultures and cuisines from all over the globe.

Although it can be intimidating going to a restaurant where you can't even pronounce most of the items on the menu, don't always resort to something familiar like Noodles & Co.

Yirgalem, 2623 Monroe St., is one of these unfamiliar places that will surely impress anyone willing to give it a chance. Owner Daniel Teferra, a UW alumnus, opened the restaurant a year and a half ago with the intent of giving Madison a flavor of Ethiopian cuisine and culture. It is named after his hometown in Ethiopia, which he left in 1974.

Ethiopian food, Teferra said, can be broken down into four main categories: wat (sauce), tibs (sautéed meat), kitfo (finely chopped beef or tuna) and veggies (like lentils and string beans). All meals in Ethiopia are served with injera, a sponge-like bread, which acts as your knife, spoon and fork.

I started off with the Timatim Fitfit ($6) appetizer, which consisted of injera pieces mixed with tomatoes, jalapeno skins, onion and a lemon-based house seasoning all tucked inside a folded piece of injera.

In the spirit of Ethiopian tradition, all meals on the menu are intended to be shared. Entrees come on one large serving plate and are split among the dinner party. Although Ethiopians also believe in hand-feeding one another, or "giving gursha," as a way of showing love, you can, but are not expected to, do so at Yirgalem.

... Overall, the food is absolutely fantastic and the experience is unique in itself. It would also make for a fun first date, as long as you feel comfortable getting a little messy with your food. Generally, Ethiopian restaurants are pretty scarce in the Midwest, so take advantage of this opportunity and explore the culinary delights Ethiopia has to offer...." >>more

The Isthmus
From Africa, with love Yirgalem serves Ethiopian food in an elegant setting
- by Tenaya Darlington

"... Yes, yes, along with the tulips, spring has yielded Yirgalem, the new Ethiopian restaurant in Monroe Street's Knickerbocker Place. It's a shining example of a restaurant that reviewers dream about. It's focused, it's friendly and it fills a niche in the local dining scene with an elegant spin on traditional Ethiopian cuisine.

Owners Yeshareg Demisse and Daniel Teferra have converted the old Victor Allen's into a cozy dining room, where young families are likely to be just as comfortable as couples whispering across the tables. The walls, painted in warm reds and browns, reflect the spices in Demisse's cooking: ginger, chilies, cardamom -- all ingredients in her rich berbere sauce, the spicy base of many dishes. There's a limited wine and beer selection, and, of course, Ethiopian coffee...

Coffee being Ethiopia's main commodity, you can bet it's good at Yirgalem, where it's infused with cardamom pods and served in individual teapots with espresso cups. One order is enough for two to split and makes the perfect ending to a richly aromatic meal.

Before you leave, take note of the 13 paintings on the walls; they represent each month in the Ethiopian calendar. Demisse, a warm-spirited chef who usually steps out of the kitchen to greet each table, can tell you all about them. And to her credit, she's trained her staff marvelously to assist diners who may be unfamiliar with the cuisine.

Although the hours have undergone changes in recent weeks and Demisse admits she is still tweaking her menu, Yirgalem is a fabulous addition to the local culinary scene, a vibrant setting that comes alive with each gently spiced bite..." >>more

Wisconsin State Journal
Where Nothing Comes Between You And The Taste Of Africa - by Chris Martell

Yirgalem means "let the world be a stable and peaceful place" in Amharic, one of the Ethiopian languages, and it's also the name of the hometown of owners Daniel Teferra, a retired economics professor from Michigan, and Yeshareg Demisse, who catered Ethiopian food in New York when she worked at the United Nations.

The restaurant, in the former Victor Allen's space on Monroe Street, looks as inviting as it smells, with some walls painted a warm pumpkin color, and others a midnight blue -- more stylish contemporary minimalism than immigrant ethnic restaurant.

Ethiopian food is traditionally eaten with the hands, and from a communal plate. If you want to go the extra step toward authenticity, you can adopt the Ethiopian way of hand-feeding one another (called "giving gursha"), which is seen as an expression of hospitality and affection. Silverware is available upon request if any of the above seems too earthy for customers.

Though each person can order the entree of choice, all the food arrives together on a platter that also holds an oblong piece of the unleavened bread that is the staple of Ethiopian cuisine, injera. The only flour used in the bread is brown "teff," a tiny round grain. It's an ancient grain, one of the most nutritious grains in the world, but is also hard to grow and process and therefore expensive. The bread is made here daily, just before meals. It's also fermented, so it has a slightly sour quality, and a spongy texture like a crepe.

Although Ethiopian cuisine is usually considered the hottest of all African cuisines, Yirgalem holds back somewhat on the hot pepper while still letting the other spices speak out beautifully.

Although sorbet is offered after the meal, it's the heavy, sweet Ethiopian coffee served in tiny cups called sini, rather than dessert, that brings the meal to an end.

In time, Yirgalem plans to offer the Ethiopian honey wine, but until then, Sauvignon Blanc from South Africa is recommended by the staff as a good fit with Ethiopian food..." >>more

"Family-style never looked like this before. A huge oval platter, the kind that most folks would plop beneath a 20-pound turkey, sat between my friend and me. We couldn't see whether the plate had a pattern, because it was covered with a brown layer of spongy flatbread that we soon would tear apart and use to wrap or sop up our food.

Traditional Ethiopian dining at Yirgalem in Madison is done with the fingers.

Owners Daniel Teferra and Yeshareg Demisse opened Yirgalem, a casual, 50-seat restaurant on Madison's eclectic Monroe St., last April. The restaurant's dark brown, orange and navy blue walls give it a cozy feel and provide a good background for a series of paintings that depict life in Ethiopia.

For Teferra, opening the restaurant has been part of a homecoming. "I was a student in economics here in the 1970s," he said.

He left Wisconsin to teach at Ferris State University in western Michigan during the 1980s and '90s.

And while Teferra may feel at home in Madison, it is Demisse who brings both partners' native home of Ethiopia to life each night as the supervisor of Yirgalem's kitchen. From blending traditional hot pepper mixtures like berbere to making that spongy bread (called injera) that shows up with almost every course, Demisse faces a big task in re-creating the flavors of her sunny homeland in the cooler climes of Wisconsin. For the most part, she succeeds... " >>more