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Maaza 29, Ethiopian, Italian, and American on Lee Highway in Gainesville - The Owner's Mom Is The Chef


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Anyone try this place out in what could be becoming a dining mecca? For anyone with an inkling of historical knowledge, this pairing of cuisines should be very interesting.  There used to be a branch of Zed's out in Gainesville, we went a few times with the kids, and the food was good, but the location was abysmal and they were probably a couple years too early.

Maaza 29 website

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<tangent>
"Very interesting" indeed.  It's a curious cultural pairing considering, well, the history of Italy in Ethiopia, particularly during the Fascist era under Graziani, who wasn't any better in Libya either.

Rodolfo Graziani in Ethiopia on wikipedia.com
Ethiopians Denounce Monument to War Criminal Rodolfo Graziani on youtube.com
</tangent>

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I've dined here. I did not try the Italian fare, but opted rather for the Ethiopian menu. It's very good. It's not the absolute best I've had, but it certainly is up at the top of the heap including most of my DC Ethiopian experiences. The Sambusas were pretty good, but the sauces stole the show. I like their injera better than others', as it wasn't overly sour and overly fermented. We shared an order of the vegetarian platter and awaze tibs. I like that they made each entree to order. My previous DC experience with a hole-in-the-wall was an oily gristly mess. This was great. This isn't the greatest location being on 29, but Nora has survived in that strip. Maaza took over the space from a failed burger joint. They had a pretty interesting beer list as well since the owner is a craft beer enthusiast.

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<tangent>

"Very interesting" indeed.  It's a curious cultural pairing considering, well, the history of Italy in Ethiopia, particularly during the Fascist era under Graziani, who wasn't any better in Libya either.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodolfo_Graziani#In_Ethiopia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w6O6f1rl-E

</tangent>

Italy and Ethiopia may have a tortured history, but I don't know if the culinary crossover is all that curious (French influence on Vietnamese food comes to mind as a decent analogy, and there are certainly many others).  When I was in Addis Ababa I noticed tons of Italian restaurants around (serving locals, not just expats), and menus at ostensibly Ethiopian places often offered spaghetti below the doro wat and gored gored.

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Italy and Ethiopia may have a tortured history, but I don't know if the culinary crossover is all that curious (French influence on Vietnamese food comes to mind as a decent analogy, and there are certainly many others).  When I was in Addis Ababa I noticed tons of Italian restaurants around (serving locals, not just expats), and menus at ostensibly Ethiopian places often offered spaghetti below the doro wat and gored gored.

I agree this is a good analogy - for better or for worse, colonized countries generally have many dishes in their repertoire influenced by the colonizing country: France and Vietnam, Spain and The Philippines, England and India - the list is a long one, and I've seen many a spaghetti dish in Ethiopian restaurants even in DC.

It's also truly amazing how much Gainesville has changed in a generation. When I drove to college (many times from 1979 through 1984), U.S. Route 29 in Gainesville was my exit off of I-66 to cut down to I-85 in North Carolina, and there was nothing there but a 7-11, about a mile south of I-66. And I mean nothing - there was one mom-n-pop gas station that wasn't always open, but if you needed anything at all while driving through Gainesville, it was the 7-11, or nothing. Gainesville, to this Silver Spring native, was so far out in the sticks that it could have just as easily been Front Royal.

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Don -- that change has happened in a very few short years. When I moved to NOVA in 1992, Gainesville was still the boonies, and we lived just a few miles away (Centreville and now Chantilly). It's remarkable what is out there now. The Wegmans is a perfect example. It even has one of the better kosher departments I've seen at the various local Wegmans. I just noticed there is a Nando's Peri-Peri, which I need to try. It's in the Reston/Mosaic District-esque area near the newish BJ's Wholesale Club (which is much nicer than the typical BJ's). The restaurants in the area are much more varied than what we have in the South Riding/Stone Ridge/Brambleton area, even the demographics are similar (but our area might be catching up, as several massive plazas are finally under construction along 50).

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The Nando's is pretty good. We went soon after they opened and service had a few hiccups, but they seemed to have ironed some of those issues out. The food is consistently good at this location. The BJ's is nice, but a bit small, so it lacks some of the ammenities of larger clubs. We've also got a pretty darn good pho place out by us and better than average for the area american-chinese restaurants, two decent NY style pizza places, and more and more family owned or non chain options are popping up. Of course, the mediocre chains continue to thrive. Our running joke when a new shopping center is under construction is that it won't officially be open until a Subway, Papa John's, cleaners, nail salon, and a Tae Kwon Do studio open up.

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The Nando's is pretty good. We went soon after they opened and service had a few hiccups, but they seemed to have ironed some of those issues out. The food is consistently good at this location. The BJ's is nice, but a bit small, so it lacks some of the ammenities of larger clubs. We've also got a pretty darn good pho place out by us and better than average for the area american-chinese restaurants, two decent NY style pizza places, and more and more family owned or non chain options are popping up. Of course, the mediocre chains continue to thrive. Our running joke when a new shopping center is under construction is that it won't officially be open until a Subway, Papa John's, cleaners, nail salon, and a Tae Kwon Do studio open up.

Thanks -- have you tried the zpizza? We had one over here in South Riding, but the moron who owned that location decided to turn it into a Manhattan Pizza.

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I've dined here. I did not try the Italian fare, but opted rather for the Ethiopian menu. It's very good. It's not the absolute best I've had, but it certainly is up at the top of the heap including most of my DC Ethiopian experiences. The Sambusas were pretty good, but the sauces stole the show. I like their injera better than others', as it wasn't overly sour and overly fermented. We shared an order of the vegetarian platter and awaze tibs. I like that they made each entree to order. My previous DC experience with a hole-in-the-wall was an oily gristly mess. This was great. This isn't the greatest location being on 29, but Nora has survived in that strip. Maaza took over the space from a failed burger joint. They had a pretty interesting beer list as well since the owner is a craft beer enthusiast.

Maaza 29's injera is made exclusively from 100% Teff, and they advertise their Ethiopian dishes as being gluten-free. (I, too, prefer injera made with 100% Teff and it's not because "I'm supposed to" - it actually tastes more pleasant to me).

If you're Gluten-Free, you can do a lot worse than maintaining your diet while supporting this literal mom-n-pop.

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