Meski will marry Ethiopian and Afro-Latin flavors in dishes like a T-bone steak in a berbere-coffee rub, above, served with chile-glazed plantains and pigeon peas.

Meski, named after Fassil’s late mother, will serve dishes like sancocho, a Dominican meat stew, infused here with Ethiopian spices. Sambusas will made from yuca, the fried pockets filled with berbere-spiced beef or lentils. As they’ve developed the menu, German said he’s been delighted to notice parallels between his native Dominican cusine and Ethiopian food. His mother’s steak encebollado stew, for example, remainds him of Ethiopian beef tibs.