Nothing, I conclude, and mull over the distressing fact that black Americans (we’ll avoid the term African-Americans for clarity’s sake here — sorry, Jesse) have not seen a Fairfax Avenue in the city since the long-gone days of segregation, when South L.A.’s Central Avenue fostered the growth not merely of restaurants, but of culture — jazz, blues, backroom billiards. That was our immigrant time. Wholly absorbed into the great American creed of rampant individualism, we have not seen fit since 1950 to come back together and grow an economy, even a tiny one; I can’t imagine a cadre of soul-food merchants deciding to set up shop together on, say, King Boulevard, for the benefit of black folks.
But there are at least some parallels between the two communities to note —Merkato, next door to Rosalind’s, is the Ethiopian answer to the Boulevard Café on King, a neighborhood, groove-worn place where the same folks day after day come to eat, but chiefly to talk and watch the world pass by on the pavement. It’s easy to spend all day there — besides the restaurant, there’s a coffee bar, a store with a wide range of goods that includes packaged injera, spices, music, videos and Ethiopian history books. There’s even a Web site. "This is the only place I come on Fairfax," declares manager Alemayehu Tafesework, a cabby for 14 years before being hired full time at Merkato last month. "This is where I come when I get tired of speaking English."
Wiry and raspy-voiced, full of a restless energy that barely allows him to stand still, Tafesework could be a Mafioso with a heart of gold, the passionate underling to Gebre-Mariam’s smooth operator. He steers me through Merkato with giddy pride, getting downright patriotic as he points out the saddlelike seats, called coursi, arranged around the messobtables. ("That’s Ethiopia, man!") He credits Merkato, and Fairfax, with bolstering him spiritually through the years, and for building from the ground up a hothouse in the middle of L.A.’s vast civic desert where Ethiopian culture can flourish. Tafesework’s future is here, on a very nouvelleAmerican block. "I feel like this is my little town here," he says. "I want to own a business one day, and I want to own it on Fairfax. I’ve moved to Philly, to Las Vegas. But one was too hot, and the other was too cold, you know? I love L.A." Sure thing. To each his own eskista.
FAIRFAX RESTAURANTS AND MARKETS
Abyssinia, 1053 S. Fairfax Ave., (323) 933-0930; Marathon Café, 1043 S. Fairfax Ave., (323) 938-4243; Merkato, 1036 ½ S. Fairfax Ave., (323) 935-1775; Messob, 1041 S. Fairfax Ave., (323) 938-8827; Nyala, 1076 S. Fairfax Ave., (323) 936-5918; Rosalind’s, 1044 S. Fairfax Ave., (323) 936-2486.
