A 31-Year-Old Ethiopian Restaurant Has Closed in the South End

An Ethiopian restaurant in the South End has closed. Addis Red Sea (544 Tremont St., Boston) had been open since 1988, according to a note from the business owner on its Yelp page. Multiple tipsters emailed Eater to report the closure, with one noting that the space was being cleared out in the middle of last week. Both Yelp and Google list the restaurant as closed, and Eater found the space vacant on November 18, with only TripAdvisor and Massachusetts Restaurant Association stickers on the door to indicate that a restaurant had ever been there: All signage for Addis Red Sea has been removed from building.

The restaurant had been listed for sale as early as 2015; the listing included its beer and wine license. But in 2017, it looked like talk of a sale was waning. It is unclear at the moment why Addis Red Sea ended up closing, but this story will be updated if more information becomes available.

This is not the first location of the Ethiopian restaurant to close its doors — Addis Red Sea operated another outpost in Cambridge’s Porter Square before closing in 2013, and that location became a new outpost of the Abbey, which expanded its Brookline-based operation, eventually opening in the former Addis space in 2014.

Fortunately for Boston-area diners after Ethiopian cuisine, there are other excellent options, including Fasika Cafe in Roxbury’s Dudley Square (and its older sibling restaurant at 145 Broadway in Somerville); Lucy Ethiopian Cafe near the Symphony MBTA station; Blue Nile Restaurant in Jamaica Plain; Ethiopian Cafe in Jamaica Plain; Habesha in Malden; Asmara Restaurant in Cambridge’s Central Square; and Sheger Cafe in North Cambridge. Somerville’s brand new Nibble Kitchen also features Ethiopian food on Saturday nights and Sunday mornings.

• Addis Red Sea Is for Sale in the South End [EBOS]
• The Abbey Is Growing and Addis Red Sea Is Shrinking [EBOS]
• The Abbey’s Cambridge Location Opens Any Day Now [EBOS]