There are enough restaurants going under these days -and plenty more that are struggling – so it takes something special for a restaurant to have a full house on a Monday night. At Fassil, that thing is the personal touch.

My friends frequent Fassil quite often, so I wasn’t surprised that the owners knew what dishes we wanted and came over for a chat, but that wasn’t just for us. They both made a point of coming out of the kitchen and visiting at all of the tables and while I couldn’t hear what was being discussed, there was sure a lot of smiling.

It could have easily been because of the food – soft injera bread topped with various meat and vegetarian stews (wats) and accompanied with sunny yellow honey wine – but I think it was mostly because the owner (sunny yellow herself in a satin shirt) was so genuinely friendly that you couldn’t help but enjoy yourself.

Fassil is at 736 East Broadway.

degan