In her two years running Saba's Ethiopian restaurant in Fitzroy, Saba Alemayoh has often felt like a point of contact for the entire continent of Africa.
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"People used to ask us things like, 'Where can I get Tanzanian beer?'" Ms Alemayoh says. "And I was like, 'I don't know, I'm Ethiopian.' I barely know where Tanzania is."
Her point is that there is no single African culture. Botswana is as different from Nigeria as Denmark is from Italy.
It has spurred Ms Alemayoh, 27, to open a second business, Afro Hub, a cultural centre in a cafe/bar-cum-performance space and gallery, in a former bank in Nicholson Street, Carlton North.
Every three months, it will explore a different nation or region's food, starting with Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan. In January it will be Tanzania, and after that, everywhere from Morocco to South Africa.
On the walls are paintings and photographs by Zimbabwean and South Sudanese artists. Ms Alemayoh hopes to stage events six nights a week, including, say, live Senegalese jazz or fashion by Nigerian designers.
"I want it to be a platform for African Australian talent," she says. "There is a lot going on in the community in terms of positive stories, but I don't feel like that's quite reflected in what you see in the media."
Ms Alemayoh was born in Sudan to Ethiopian parents. The chef at Saba's, and now at Afro Hub, is her mother, Tekebash Gebre, 52, who fled northern Ethiopia for Sudan aged 17 in 1981, amid famine, a communist regime and the Ethiopian-Eritrean war.
In the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, Ms Gebre worked as a cleaner and nanny and mastered both Ethiopian and Sudanese cuisine.
On the menu at Afro Hub is the staple Sudanese breakfast food ful (stewed fava beans in spices with boiled egg and feta cheese); keyih sebhi – a red stew of lamb slow-cooked in dilik (chilli) and served on couscous; and basboosa, a Sudanese-style semolina cake. South African wines and Kenyan beer are available at the bar.
Supported by a tight-knit group of family and friends, Ms Alemayoh feels confident of being able to run both Saba's and Afro Hub.
Before Saba's, she had run a catering business with her mother, but admits she "didn't really consider the gravity" of entering the competitive Brunswick Street foodie scene with Saba's.
"I was like, I'd want to go there [an Ethiopian restaurant] and I'd like to eat like that, and I made decisions based on that, not realising the big risks."
But the move succeeded, with Saba's getting good reviews, and making the top five of the Good Food Guide 2017: Melbourne's Best Cheap Eats.
