The Blue Nile is 2025 Restaurant of the Year Classic

Yahoo

03-04-2025

For introducing metro Detroit to Ethiopian cuisine, The Blue Nile is the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Restaurant of the Year Classic, awarded to an exceptional establishment that has been under continuous ownership for at least 10 years.
Seifu Lessanework, the 78-year-old owner of The Blue Nile in Ferndale and Ann Arbor, is scrolling through old photos of dignitaries he's served throughout the span of his career.
He reaches across the table at the center of a small booth to place the screen on his book-style foldable phone in my line of sight, and points to photographs signed by late and living rulers of various nations. There's President George Bush — both H.W. and W. There's President Barak Obama and Ronald Reagan. There's former President of Uganda Idi Amin and Ethiopia's last emperor, Haile Selassie I in 1972.
'And you know who this is?' he asks, pointing to a figure standing behind the Ethiopian dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and leaving little room for a response. 'Me,' he says, beaming with pride.
Today, the restaurateur is recognized for laying the foundation for African cuisine in the Detroit area — a commitment he made more than four decades ago.
Lessanework walks me through an oral history of his life in hospitality and the notable people he's encountered along the way. As a head cook for Hilton Hotels, he opened hotel restaurants across the globe, including branches in Beirut, Jerusalem, London and Nairobi. In Montreal, he worked as a cook at The Queen Elizabeth.
A native of Ethiopia, Lessanework returned to his home country for a new job opportunity in the early 1970s and remained there during the Ethiopian Revolution of 1974. Amid the unrest brought by the Revolution, he sought peace in the United States, first in New York City, where he accepted a job as head chef at Windows on the World, the former glass-enclosed restaurant that occupied the top floors of the World Trade Center's North Tower. And in 1982, he relocated to Michigan, where he was hired as a regional manager of the C. A. Muer Restaurant Group.
Lessanework helped the late restaurateur Chuck Muer open restaurants in metro Detroit, as well as locations throughout the Midwest. He developed a closeknit relationship with Muer and considered him a mentor. When he got the idea to open his own restaurant, he remained loyal to the restaurant giant.
'I wanted to open an Ethiopian restaurant because that was the only thing that didn't compete with Chuck Muer,' he tells me. He saw Muer as a generous manager and appreciated his trust in him as one of the only Black individuals to hold a leadership position in the company during a time when diverse management teams were rare.
Lessanework opened the original location of The Blue Nile in Midtown Detroit. He dressed the Woodward Avenue restaurant in Ethiopian garb and served spiced stews with tangy injera bread. The experience, he says, was positive. The environment surrounding the restaurant, however, was concerning.
'I was doing very good, but the crime was so bad,' he says. He recalls times when customers would enjoy a lovely meal, only to return moments later to report that their vehicles had been broken into. 'Everybody complained about security and safety, but bragged about the food.'
Lessanework credits Coleman Young for offering a solution. The former Detroit mayor pointed him to Trappers Alley Shopping Center, the former mall in Detroit's Greektown neighborhood. When it opened in 1985, The Blue Nile became one of Trappers' first tenants, serving Ethiopian dishes from Lessanework's own family recipes to a bustling crowd of mallgoers.
But only for two years.
Though he'd signed a 25-year lease, Lessanework's efforts were interrupted by new ownership with long-term plans to open a casino at the old Trappers Alley site. The venue would become Greektown Casino in 2000.
When he reopened The Blue Nile in 2002, it would be in Ferndale, where the restaurant remains today.
The Ferndale location honors Lessanework's Ethiopian heritage and his pride as a Detroit immigrant. For more than two decades, the space has donned Ethiopian prints as table cloths and fabrics wrapped around lampshades. Paintings of East African landscapes hang in the dining room, juxtaposed against artifacts from The Blue Nile's old post in a former office space at Trappers. Most of the ornamental wood — cabinets and wall pendants and a massive mantle — are ghosts of Trappers' past.
With restaurants like Baobab Fare, Yum Village, Maty's, KG's African American Grill, Saffron De Twah and Warda Patisserie; metro Detroit is home to a host of establishments that showcase the depth and diversity of African foodways. Lessanework looks fondly at local Ethiopian kinfolk like the operators of Taste of Ethiopia in Southfield and the pop-up Konjo Me.
'I'm so proud,' he says. 'These restaurants all add value for Ethiopian food because they give base for comparison.'
But as he was getting his start, Lessanework did not have the same advantage.
The Blue Nile, with the same dishes served today — meats cooked in niter kibbeh, or clarified butter infused with herbs, and various preparations of split peas and lentils — had the duty of delighting and informing unfamiliar customers.
'I had to adapt the recipes to the tastebuds of the Americans,' he says, noting that he moderated the heat on especially spicy dishes.
Low-to-the-ground tables and chairs added an allure to the space and he encouraged diners to sweep up their stews with tears of injera and their bare hands, another dining concept that still takes some getting used to among new customers. 'A fork can fall on the floor, but you trust that more than your hands?' he asks incredulously.
Lessanework says sharing is central to Ethiopian dining, and an idea he's tried to enforce at The Blue Nile for more than 40 years. 'If you don't like to share, I'll bring you separate plates,' he says, 'but that's not the culture. The culture is, you roll up your sleeves, and dig in. When you eat together, you're sharing.'
The latter sentiment, I interpret as a collective sharing. A sharing of food, yes, but also a sharing of culture and of self.
The key to educating people on a cuisine, he says, is targeting children, a lesson he learned from McDonald's and the corporation's tactic of creating Happy Meals, including toys with meals and building play gyms into restaurants. 'When you work on the kids, forget about Mom and Dad. Like it or not, the kids will bring them to the restaurant,' he says. Lessanework connected with local schools to incorporate dishes from The Blue Nile into lunch menus.
The Blue Nile went on to becoming a family affair. Lessanework runs the Ferndale location with his wife Fetle, and his children and grandchildren have all served the business in some capacity over the years, on their way to becoming doctors and engineers. His sister Almaz and brother-in-law Habte Dadi operate an Ann Arbor location.
After 50 years in the hospitality business, this year will be Lessanework's last as he heads into retirement. He looks back on the customers who've celebrated milestones at The Blue Nile and the children he's watched grow into adults with their own families.
Before he retires at the end of the year, he intends to serve his most loyal customers like the dignitaries who hang on the walls in his home office. He'll set up tables for six in their homes and serve them with his own hands.
These are the true kings and queens of The Blue Nile.
The Blue Nile, 545 W. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale. 248-547-6699. 221 E. Washington St., Ann Arbor. 734-998-4746; bluenileferndale.com
Save the Date: On Tuesday, June 10, The Blue Nile, the Detroit Free Press and Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers will host a Top 10 Takeover dinner. Stay tuned for ticket information at Freep.com/top10.
For a chance to win five $100 gift cards to dine at restaurants on the 2025 Detroit Free Press/Metro Detroit Chevy Dealers Top 10 New Restaurants & Dining Experiences list, visit chevydetroit.com/community/giveaways/roy25.
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Restaurant of the Year Classic brought Ethiopian traditions to Detroit