In a city as restaurant-rich as Victoria, opening yet another could frighten off some entrepreneurs – unless you’re going to offer something completely different.
That’s what made Esquimalt’s Blue Nile Restaurant such a success – its uniqueness and the confidence of owner Michael Isaac.
“I did research and learned that per capita Victoria had more restaurants per person than any major city in North America, except for Los Angeles,” he says.
“There are dozens of Chinese restaurants, but one offering Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine? That was a market no one had ever really explored.”
Located at #3-612 Head St. in Esquimalt, Blue Nile Restaurant offers the tastes Isaac and his wife, Smeret – also business partner and cook – remember from their Ethiopian homeland.
“Ethiopian food can be spicy, but we can adjust it to meet any taste. Everything we do is fresh; we don’t fry anything and everything we do is homemade. One of our specialties is injera, a form of traditional East African bread that’s fermented and very healthy for you,” Isaac says.
While they’d never operated a restaurant (Isaac formerly worked as an electronics technician and a care aide), he missed the distinctive East African cuisine he and Smeret had grown up with. Satisfying that desire, while introducing the tastes of home to a new audience, motivated the opening the Blue Nile.
“Many of the dishes we offer come from personal family recipes, from my mother and from Smeret’s mother. What we do is authentic, and since we opened our client base has grown dramatically – not just people from Ethiopia but locals,” he says. “We have customers who regularly come from Duncan – once they eat it, they keep coming back.”
The Blue Nile offers a range of exotic culinary offerings such as Zebhi Dorho – tender chicken served in a rich and spicy berbere sauce – and Siga Zebhi, a recipe featuring marinated beef slices served in a lightly browned onion sauce with either spinach (hamli) or lentils (tumtumo). Diners also enjoy a range of distinctive vegan options.
Having closed the dining room at the start of the COVID pandemic, the Blue Nile currently is take-out and delivery only but they’re hoping to resume full operation soon. “Once the numbers come down some more, we’re anxious to go back to full service, but we’re not quite there yet,” Isaac says.
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