Africa-Press-Ethiopia<\/p>\n
Cafe Avole is hard at work building out their second location in the Liberty Bank Building, joining other Black-owned businesses like Earl\u2019s Cuts and Communion in development around 23rd and Union.<\/p>\n
Ethiopian-owned, Cafe Avole sources, roasts, and sells high-grade coffees from Yirga Ch\u2019Efe and Guji. Cafe Avole launched their flagship store in 2016 at the corner of Rainier Ave S and S Holly in Seattle\u2019s Brighton neighborhood. The cafe offers Ethiopian food, community pop-ups, and, in pre-pandemic times, jebena, a central part of the coffee ceremony for Ethiopian and Eritrean households. The second location in the Liberty Bank Building is slated to open in May or June, depending on the progress of the buildout.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started our initial conversation [with the Liberty Bank Building] in 2018, right before the building was complete,\u201d said Solomon Dubie, co-owner of Cafe Avole along with Gavin Amos and Getachew Enbiale. \u201cWe were supposed to try to get in there shortly thereafter, but things got held up, and then COVID hit. It was postponed for a little while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Located on E Union and 24th Ave E, the Liberty Bank Building is a mixed-use development that opened in the Central District in 2019 with affordable apartments and retail spaces for lease. Named after the area\u2019s first Black-owned bank founded in 1968, the Liberty Bank Building seeks to preserve and grow a historically Black neighborhood in a rapidly-gentrifying area of Seattle.<\/p>\n
The Liberty Bank location is smaller than the flagship store, and the emphasis will be on coffee, less on food, although Dubie said they\u2019ll still offer some pastries and baked goods with Golden Wheat Bakery and other local companies.<\/p>\n
Ethiopia has some of the most sought-after single origin coffees, known for their bold berry and fruit tasting notes. When it\u2019s safe to do so, Dubie plans on offering jebena at the second location as well. Jebena is a traditional pot for brewing coffee, typically made of clay with long necks and pouring spouts, passed down from generation to generation. Coffee is brewed in jebenas, then poured into small cups. The first cup is called the Avole. Dubie explained Cafe Avole\u2019s take on Ethiopian coffee ceremony has an Afrofuturist sensibility, infusing the Seattle coffee scene with a tradition from the birthplace of coffee itself. It\u2019s something that sets them apart from the two other cafes in the area, Squirrel Chops and Union Coffee.<\/p>\n
Those caffeinated traditions are finally becoming part of the cafe scene around Capitol Hill and the Central District. CHS reported previously on the arrival of Boon Boona at 12th and Cherry. \u201cBoon Boona is how we say coffee,\u201d owner Efrem Fesaha tells CHS. \u201cBut I focused on the East African community first, then coffee and an experience that is more culturally aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, another new purveyor of international coffee flavors is opening on Broadway where Kitanda features Brazilian lattes and P\u00e3o de Queijo.<\/p>\n
At Cafe Avole, Ethiopian coffee ceremony, or buna, is an intimate part of family life, not something you\u2019d go elsewhere to order. \u201cI\u2019ve imagined this Afrofuturism perspective of our culture. We\u2019re going to introduce the jebena in different ways,\u201d Dubie said. Cafe Avole\u2019s jebena reclaims Ethiopian heritage in a specialty coffee world that, at least in the U.S., is pretty removed from knowledge of coffee-producing lands. \u201cThe concept changed, now I\u2019m giving the jebena to the customer. We\u2019ll brew the jebena, but we\u2019ll bring the jebena to your table and you can experience it with your friends and the people around you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Cafe Avole will continue to develop what Dubie calls their arts and culture department in the new location, cultivating creativity among staff, community, and other like-minded BIPOC-owned businesses. In the past, they collaborated with clothing store and creative agency\u00a0Paradice Avenue Souf<\/strong>\u00a0on block parties and art parties, and recently on a limited edition Yirgacheffe coffee, with artwork by\u00a0Ari Glass<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Now Cafe Avole is working with\u00a0eTc Tacoma<\/strong>, a clothing and lifestyle brand. \u201cWe\u2019re hoping to have apparel that\u2019s going to make sense, and not just us putting a name on a shirt and saying \u2018We\u2019re this.\u2019\u201d Dubie said. \u201cI feel like every single bag that we come out with should be with the collaboration of an artist.\u201d<\/p>\n The fact that Cafe Avole is opening a location in the Liberty Bank Building is already an artistic collaboration of sorts. \u201cYou\u2019ve got this energy that\u2019s building right there on the corner where we\u2019re at,\u201d Dubie said. \u201cWe\u2019re excited.\u201d<\/p>\n As the Liberty Bank Building reclaims some of the neighborhood for Black residents, the presence of Cafe Avole reclaims a little more of the Seattle coffee scene for the lands and people who produce it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Africa-Press-Ethiopia Cafe Avole is hard at work building out their second location in the Liberty Bank Building, joining other Black-owned businesses like Earl\u2019s Cuts and Communion in development around 23rd and Union. Ethiopian-owned, Cafe Avole sources, roasts, and sells high-grade coffees from Yirga Ch\u2019Efe and Guji. Cafe Avole launched their flagship store in 2016 at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":38711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1437],"tags":[2691],"class_list":["post-38709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press-ethiopia"],"yoast_head":"\n