dsm Dish - June 27, 2025

At Habesha, the coffee is steeped in tradition

By Mathany Ahmed

A thousand-year-old traditional coffee ceremony has made its way from Ethiopia to Des Moines thanks to Bashatu Gutama and her husband, Abdissa Tumie.

The couple recently opened Habesha, a restaurant at 3500 Merle Hay Road, where they host coffee ceremonies from noon to 3 p.m. every Saturday. The experience is a slow and intentional performance, to encourage customers to absorb the coffee through all five senses by the end of their first cup.

Gutama (pictured) begins the ritual by lighting frankincense soaked in fragrant oils, before roasting organically grown Arabica coffee beans on a small burner at the front of the restaurant. Customers can hear the beans crackle and watch them turn from bright green to glistening brown as they release their oils.

The roasting process creates the first of three essential aromas in a true coffee ceremony, according to Tumie. “You smell the first aroma and feel refreshed,” he said. “Then you grind and boil it, and the house is filled with yet another fragrance.”

During the roasting, Gutama walks the pan through the space to waft the smoke toward her customers so they can take in the first scent. Then she grinds the beans and brings the grounds to boil in a traditional clay pot called a jebena. Next she pours the coffee into tiny cups called sini, made small to encourage multiple servings.

The third scent hits you as you take your first sip. The resulting drink has a bright flavor, with notes of berries and chocolate.

“The coffee ceremony is the center of gravity for society in Ethiopia,” Tumie said. “We gather there. We discuss family issues there. It’s the place where we share our feelings.”

The couple met in childhood but were separated for decades during the country’s ethnic wars. Gutama endured years in refugee camps in Kenya and Uganda before landing in the United States in 2009. Des Moines has been her home for 14 years, and after finally marrying Tumie in 2020, she’s found time and peace to pursue her true passions.

“My goal is to serve the community,” she said. “I love to cook. My dad and mom were pastors, and there were always a lot of guests. We were always cooking.”

So far, the community has responded well to the new offering on Merle Hay Road. The Rogers family stopped in one day expecting to enjoy a lunch from the restaurant that previously inhabited the space. But Jeremy Rogers and his daughter Kiana are both avid coffee drinkers and like trying local spots together, so they stuck around — and loved the coffee. “There’s a little sweetness to it that I don’t think is the sugar,” Jeremy said.

The hospitality Gutama and Tumie offer newcomers is as delicious as any part of the Ethiopian coffee experience. The shop’s name, Habesha (HA-buh-shuh), is a general term some Ethiopians and Eritreans use to describe themselves, to transcend tribal distinctions and celebrate regional unity.

Tradition says the longer the coffee takes to brew, the more time drinkers have to connect with one other. “Coffee is the center of meeting, it’s the center of socialization,” Tumie said. “We’re humans, we have something to say to each other.”

Contributing writer Mathany Ahmed grew up in Iowa City in a family with roots in Sudan. She now lives in Central Iowa and covers its diverse communities.

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Tastemaker

What food or drink reminds you of childhood?

"The Pink Squirrel or Grasshopper at Jessie’s Embers takes me right back to childhood. My parents used to make them at home —sorry, Mom and Dad! I’m pretty sure they were trying to get us to go to bed."

— Daniel Zinnel, CEO of Proteus, Inc.

Correction: In last week’s newsletter, we incorrectly identified Christina Moffatt’s employer and title. She works for Principal Financial Group as the assistant director of business development income solutions. We regret the error and owe her an Orange Julius.

Quick Bites

The Business Record won an award earlier this month from the Alliance of Area Business Publications for Kyle Heim’s in-depth story about an Iowa family who transformed their Radcliffe hog farm into one that now produces 4,000 pounds of mushrooms every month.

The Machine Shed in Urbandale will host a one-night-only Farm-to-Table Dinner on Wednesday, July 17, featuring a chef-curated menu that celebrates Iowa’s local producers and seasonal ingredients. Call 515-270-6818 to reserve a spot.

The Ingersoll, once known as the Ingersoll Dinner Theatre, is hiring an executive chef and kitchen team. It plans to open in November.

Events

Today: Shandy Fest at Court Avenue Brewing Co. is set for 3-6 p.m. Aficionados and newbies alike can sample unique shandys with an array of appetizers.

Saturday: Hotori celebrates its first 100 days with food, drinks and friends, 5-8 p.m.

Monday: A cocktail class at Either/Or features THC-infused seltzers from Climbing Kites. Learn how to make a few of the restaurant’s favorite “Kitetails” in this hands-on workshop.

Tuesday: The Historic Corn Plot Dinner offers several courses, each made with corn harvested on site at the Wallace Farm in Orient.

Our friend and neighbor Cathy Lacy is one of those effortlessly gifted hosts, the kind who channels an Ina Garten-style charm to make everyone feel instantly at home the moment they arrive. She's an exceptional cook, too, and one of the best perks of living nearby is the occasional spontaneous invitation to come sample whatever she's working on in the kitchen. When my phone pings, I come running.

Not long ago, Cathy invited us over to try a new barbecue rib recipe she was perfecting for summer. The ribs were fantastic, but what really stole the show was the side: a batch of baked beans so flavorful they had everyone texting about them the next day. Made with several bean varieties, sautéed peppers and onions, Graziano sausage, barbecue sauce and beer, this humble dish turned into the centerpiece of the evening.

A few weeks later, Cathy graciously offered to whip up a second batch and share the recipe with dsm. Naturally, this turned into another impromptu gathering with our spouses, this time with smash burgers and a refreshing salad of watermelon, feta and mint. Once again, those baked beans were the crowd favorite.

These casual get-togethers have become some of my favorite events, with good food, great company and the kind of memories that linger long after the plates are cleared. We hope Cathy’s recipe brings the same joy to your summer cookouts as it has to ours.

Cathy Lacy’s Baked Beans

Ingredients
1 16-ounce can wax beans, drained
1 16-ounce can cut green beans, drained
1 16-ounce can butter beans, drained
1 16-ounce can black beans, drained
2 16-ounce cans BBQ baked beans, with liquid
2 16-ounce cans ranch style beans (seasoned pintos), with liquid
1 16-ounce can tomato paste
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup BBQ sauce (Cathy prefers Rufus Teague Honey Sweet BBQ)
1 small onion, diced (Cathy prefers a Vidalia when available)
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 small yellow pepper, diced
2 hot sausage links, sliced
2 regular sausage links, sliced
1 bottle of beer (Cathy uses Stella Artois)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions
Open all the canned products and place their contents in a slow cooker. Add brown sugar and BBQ sauce.

In a sauté pan, cook the onion, peppers and sausages together for 6-10 minutes so the flavors meld. Then add them to the slow cooker.

Top the bean mixture with half a bottle of beer before closing the lid and cooking on low for 6-7 hours. As you check the progress throughout the day, stir occasionally and add the remaining beer as needed if the beans start to look a little dry.

Contributing writer Chris Diebel is a public affairs consultant and founding partner of Bubba - Southern Comforts.

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If you’re heading to the Des Moines Arts Festival this weekend, why not sit for a spell at Locals? The new self-proclaimed dive bar at 15th and Walnut streets, in the former Teehee’s comedy club, officially opened Thursday night and offers live local music, without a cover, tonight and Saturday. Looking forward, the owners plan to book exclusively local bands who perform their own original music.

Co-owner Sid Juwarker opened Teehee’s in January 2020 and had to shut it down when the pandemic hit. A few months later he was putzing around the empty space when Ben Norris, who owns The Walnut restaurant nearby, popped in to say hello and to thank Juwarker for promoting The Walnut at Teehee’s shows and on social media. Norris also offered Juwarker a check since restaurants (but not bars) had started to receive financial support from the government. Juwarker thanked him but declined to accept it.

“It was the best few grand I never spent,” Juwarker told dsm this week, explaining how he and Norris became friends and recently teamed up with two other partners, Eli Berry and Anthony Vasquez, to open the new venture.