Taste this: Meat combo ($29.87) at Bereka Coffee (216-395-4011), located in Portage Lakes (3308 S. Main St., Akron)
Creator: Nardos Street, co-owner
Eye test: If you order the meat combo at Bereka Coffee, it’s best to come hungry — and bring a friend. Served on a large, colorful platter, the combo of Ethiopian food comes with steak and chicken, kale and tomato salad, beets and potatoes, and turmeric rice. It’s all served atop injera bread, a spongy, fermented flatbread. Extra rolls of injera are included with the platter as well.
Process: Street does all the cooking at Bereka Coffee. Once the food is plated, it’s placed in the center of the table. In Ethiopian culture, a shared meal is traditionally eaten without silverware. Instead, diners tear off pieces of injera bread and scoop up the food.
Sides: Since Bereka is known for its coffee, I ordered Chocolate Oasis Mocha ($7) to go with my meal. It can be served iced or hot, and it’s made with organic Ethiopian coffee, dairy-free milk infused with spices and chocolate sauce and topped with cold foam.
How does it taste? All of the food was incredibly flavorful and paired well together. The chicken had a nice warm heat to it, but it wasn’t too spicy. The steak was lean and cooked with garlic and spices. The potatoes and beets were a surprise hit for me. (After a few bites, I usually find beets to be too much.) But the potatoes balanced the earthiness of the beets nicely. The injera bread has a pleasantly sour taste to it and was strong enough to hold any bite I picked up, no matter how large.
About the creator: Street grew up in Ethiopia, where sharing elaborate meals and coffee with friends and family members was a common occurrence.
“Everyone really just selflessly loves hosting people. They just want you to come in,” she said. “People just want to be connected more than anything. This is a culture in Ethiopia that has been in existence for over 3,000 years, so it is a part of who we are.”
She came to the United States to attend Wayne State University in Detroit. While there, she met her husband, Ron. The two moved to his hometown of Akron in 2010 and married the following year.
About Bereka Coffee: The idea for Bereka Coffee emerged after a trip the then newlyweds took to Ethiopia in 2012. (It was also Ron’s first visit.) By the time their flight left Ethiopia, Ron was already missing the country. “Ron casually said, ‘I just wish I could bring everyone with me,’” Street recalled. “And we were like, ‘Well, that may be impossible to do, but we could take the culture to the people.’”
For a couple of years after that trip, the Streets performed free Ethiopian coffee ceremonies at public libraries. The ceremony involves roasting beans, grinding them with a mortar and pestle, boiling them with water, then letting the mixture simmer before serving in small cups.
Bereka Coffee officially launched in 2015 as a mobile coffee trailer, popping up at local farmers markets and events. In November 2024, the couple opened a cafe in Portage Lakes. Bereka is a bit of an outlier in the small community that’s known more for its casual, waterside dining. But Street is happy to introduce people to her native cuisine.
“The majority of people are willing to give it a try because I tell them, ‘If you are here, this is like a mini tour of Ethiopia,” she said. “You get to experience what life is like in Ethiopia. If you go to a restaurant in Ethiopia or someone’s house in Ethiopia, this is exactly how you would be experiencing a meal. So we want people to have that opportunity to try it.”
How to buy: Bereka Coffee is open 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.
