Lessons in good taste
In the middle of the sprawling ethnic markets, malls and community establishments in the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, there’s the new Tam-Tam’s African Restaurant, a particularly hospitable venue for a dinner with Hussein Samatar, the executive director of the nearby African Development Center (ADC.)
Over a flavored sweet tea boiled with milk—the classic East African way—Samatar, a former banker-turned entrepreneur, describes ADC’s role in the immigrant community, especially the Somali community, which he hails from.
Four years ago, Samatar, an economist by training, began what he describes as “101: Talking on community business needs.” Essentially, he would ask each business what its needs are in terms of business development and sustainability issues. “I realized that many of them lacked business fundamentals such as financial management, risk assessment and business plans,” he said.
Facts in hand, Samatar set his sights on finding a way to offer the community exactly what they needed: a clearinghouse for community business development. The fruits of his work are now on display throughout the Twin Cities—and in this very restaurant.
Sitting at a table beneath a giraffe-shaped figure at Tam-Tam’s, where light African music fills the air, Samatar talks about the three courses that his organization offers to prospective business owners three times a year.
During each 16-week course, would-be business owners, almost all of whom are recent immigrants, go through an extensive training on what it takes to own and operate a business in their new homeland, where many little pieces of the puzzle must fit together before they’ll find success.
“We touch on everything from cleaning their credit history, to making them bankable, to restructuring their approach to money and business transactions,” said Samatar, “We like to see our client graduate from us.”
A grateful client
In fact, one of the graduates of ADC’s program, Uganda native Steve Kaggwa, is now running Tam-Tam’s restaurant with two of his fellow countrymen.
“We are grateful to ADC,” Kaggwa said, embracing Samatar, “We couldn’t do it without them.”
Strategically located in the heart of the African community’s hub in Minneapolis, Tam-Tam’s is probably the only restaurant in the Twin Cities that serves almost all African types of food.
“We just didn’t want to start up another country-focused restaurant,” Kaggwa said, “So we decided to make it all African.”
Here, entrees such as the famous Ethiopian injera, a flattened bread served with a spicy choice of meat or vegetable, and ugali, a softly cooked corn meal usually served with home-style cooked beans with garlic and onions, are available.
It’s so all African at Tam-Tam’s that the menu is distinctly organized into the continent’s four main regions (East, West, Central and Horn.)
African sculptures made out of wood, color-coordinated with the rest of the place, bedeck the walls of the restaurant.
On Saturday evening, September 23, the first day of Ramadan, the Muslim Holy month, customers from all parts of Africa, chatting in their own distinct dialects, sat at every corner of the restaurant. Many of them ordered Sambosas, a fried crispy pastry stuffed with a choice of spiced ground beef, chicken or vegetables. For many Muslims who are fasting all day, it’s the favorite food to break the fasting.
Among non-African customers, injera and ugali are the favorite dishes, said Kaggwa.
The servers at Tam-Tam’s, which means “something sweet” in the Swahili language, are also reflective of Africa. They are multilingual, typically fluent in at least two African languages and English.
The young man serving on Saturday night is from Somalia. During the day, a bright lady with a wide smile, who is from Ethiopia, is the server. Even Swaziland, a tiny nation circled by South Africa, is represented at Tam-Tam’s.
Kaggwa says the selection of the staff is deliberate and business-oriented.
Before launching his restaurant, Kaggwa was a business major who dreaded the prospect of being confined to a computer terminal dealing with a bunch of numbers. He opted to pursue his undeclared major: cooking.
After a number of unsuccessful stints, he stumbled on ADC’s program, which steered him toward owning and operating his business with reasonable financing options.
Now, barely three months into the business, Kaggwa is fairly optimistic about the future. “New customers are coming every day. We see a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said.
Asked if the massive presence of Somalis and a number of Somali restaurants in the area pose a challenge, Kaggwa makes the point that most Somalis are familiar with their dishes, especially the ugali and injera, because most of them passed through Kenya, Uganda or Ethiopia, where they got acculturated to multiple African foods.
“Many Somalis would like to refresh their taste for our dishes,” Kaggwa said.
Just as Kaggwa refreshed his memory of Samatar and the course that led to his business success.
last revised: October 20, 2006