Eritrean, Ethiopian restaurant owner was a ‘big brother and father’ to many in Charlotte
Red Sea Eritrean & Ethiopian Cuisine is a family restaurant in the truest sense of the word. Family.
Tecle Gebremussie opened the restaurant in 2001 with his wife, Netsanet, after he moved to Charlotte from the West Coast. Over the next 20 years, the husband-wife duo served the Charlotte community a cuisine from their birthplaces; Eritrea for Tecle and Ethiopia for Netsanet.
The couple had help running the business along the way, including from their kids starting at a young age.
Now, the family is reckoning a Red Sea future without Tecle Gebremussie who died in a car crash this month at age 56. The crash happened as he was driving home with groceries for the restaurant, the family said.
Their oldest daughter, Hermella, spent countless hours at the restaurant starting around age 5. She helped in little ways, closely watching her dad work and interact with his customers.
“He taught me everything,” said Hermella, 26, who’s studying for a master’s in public policy at Duke University. “All the lessons like the value of the dollar, networking, building a community.”
Her younger brother, Yafet, and younger sister, Meruon, also helped out.
Yafet, a 21-year-old UNC Charlotte student studying business analytics, remembers spending time at Red Sea. He wiped down tables. Maybe changed a light bulb or two. There was a game room in the back and Yafet would sit on top of a pool table and watch cartoons on the small TV in the corner.
A portrait of Gebremussie — most everyone, including customers, friends and family, called him “T” — now sits by the front bar with flowers and two lit candles.
The community has come together around the family, helping to support the restaurant. Many are from Charlotte’s Habesha community. Habesha refers to a cultural identity given to people from Eritrea and Ethiopia.
The countries are in the Horn of Africa region on the eastern side of the continent.
“He was a big brother and father for a lot of people,” Yafet said. “Not just us.”
A dream to start a business in America
Gebremussie was born in Habo, a small, rural Eritrean town in east Africa. He went to school nearby in Segheneyti, his daughter Hermella said, but dropped out at age 12. He needed to make money to support his mom.
He was driven by an entrepreneurial spirit from a young age, and talked about how he wanted to come to the United States to start his own business.
“He knew that’s what he wanted to do with his life,” Hermella told The Charlotte Observer.
Gebremussie arrived in the states in the early- to mid-90s. He spent a couple of years living in Los Angeles but found it to be too expensive to raise a family there. By 1996, Gebremussie was married and expecting his first daughter.
He moved to Charlotte, where his wife and daughter joined him. By 2001, he opened Red Sea, naming the restaurant after the sea that bordered his native home.
The restaurant fed his entrepreneurial spirit. But his daughter believes there might have been another reason he opened it: Gebremussie dealt with famine back home and didn’t always have a lot to eat.
“I think that sparked a desire in him to feed a community, be a nurturer that way” Hermella said.
A restaurant as a first home
In 2001, not many people in Charlotte knew about east African cuisine.
Gebremussie spent time showing his customers how to eat the food — with your hands, not a fork and knife, and how to use the spongy bread called injera to mop up the meal.
One thing Gebremussie’s children remember about their dad was his work ethic. His mornings usually would start at the grocery store and then he’d head to the restaurant to get the kitchen and service going. He would often work nights when Red Sea stayed open as a bar.
Red Sea became more like Gebremussie’s first home, his work ethic driving him to make sure everything was just right, his children said.
His customers showed appreciation, first when the restaurant was open on Charlottetowne Avenue and then when it moved in 2016 to Monroe Road. Many became loyal visitors.
For Yafet, Red Sea provided a connection to his culture. He remembers customers coming by and sharing memories or swapping stories with his dad. It brought Yafet and his siblings closer to their father.
“Just how (the restaurant) was my dad’s first home, it was a lot of Habesha’s first home,” Yafet said.
The family is keeping the restaurant open. They aim to keep Gebremussie’s legacy alive.
