Benyam

Ethiopian food with Beniam Asfaw, co-owner of Benyam in Harlem.

 

“The vision is to have a creative space, you know...it's a combination of food and art." 

 

“I wanted to have a space that I can talk to people, you know, see what they're doing, just be friends, you know what I mean? I think that's one of the good things about our place. People feel comfortable to come and eat and, you know, just chill."

 

We shared a platter of several different meat and vegetarian dishes.

 

"Whenever they read spicy they think about, like, hot stuff like, you know, burning or whatever. Yeah, there's some kick to it, in some cases. But we usually mention spice as a flavor."

 

 

"The spices, the color of the food and everything, you know, it's art. You know, look at this crochet stuff. You have all these different colors here. And when you look at the food, you have the yellow, the red, the green. In a way, you know, it's an art piece. So, the food and the art matches for us."

 

 

"If you have a space, you know, you have to make it your own and make it something that represent you, you know?"