In March 2024, Ethiopian sisters Selam and Blen Tesfalem redefined Kigali’s food culture with an addition of culinary street food. Right in the heart of Africa’s cleanest city, in the renowned Imbuga city walk, is where the duo set up “Quick Bites”, a fast-food stall.
Situated at the extreme end of the car free zone – as you trek from Bank of Kigali or M-Peace Plaza, and at the forefront if you’re coming from Executive Suites and Apartments or Norrsken, the black and gold rectangular compartment specializes in shawarma and smashed burgers, made and served by the two beautiful sisters.
With her face beaming, Selam greets us immediately as we get to the kiosk. Not even the marinating buns could stop her from recognizing our presence. On her right, Blen is bustling in packing finished burgers for some customers at the back of the door before joining the sister, who was now preparing fries to accompany the delicacy.
The inspiration behind the burger house:
“It was basically my boyfriend’s idea,” said Blen as she continued to cut sandwich sized pieces of foil. I later learnt it was for the ‘special’ sauce or ketchup they served with the fries.
Upon coming to Rwanda, the sisters didn’t initially plan on venturing into any business. Instead, after deciding to stay in the country, they started a vlog channel called: “Kigali Addis Vibes” where they shared experiences and comparisons between Addis Ababa (their hometown) and Kigali.
“We were content creators, doing videos on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, all social media basically,” Selam remarked, adding that the scarcity of such creations in the country inspired their odyssey.
“When we started, there were not so many vlogs about Rwanda or Kigali, yet it’s a beautiful country, so we wanted to create awareness and make people visit Rwanda. We could go to Gisenyi, Kibuye, and document it.”
However, because the ‘burger house’ topic always found its way into Blen and her boyfriend’s conversations, she decided to give it a thought.
“He always wanted to open a burger house, we always talked about it, like oh you know, we can make good money, and all that,” she recounted.
Blen affirmed the resolve, saying, “Since me and my sister are passionate about food, and there was no fast food in Kigali, we decided to give it a shot.” Today, the two sisters are business partners and co-own Quick Bites, together with Blen’s boyfriend. Whoever said you can’t mix family and business?
On why they chose Burgers and Shawarma as their specialties, Selam admitted Blen’s boyfriend is an expert when it comes to making burgers. As for the shawarma, they had not seen many shawarma machines in Kigali, thus introducing one.
The female pair is up before daybreak, six days a week. They start by shopping for all the necessities required to make the delicacies and setting up their miniature kitchen.
By 11:00 am, the stall is officially open to the public, with the diligent charismatic sisters ready to serve whoever walks by. While the girls run up and down in the kitchen preparing the delicacies, the boyfriend is out somewhere delivering to the customers who order via the app he developed.
They all agree that business is thriving and are grateful they took the move. Very soon, Selam says they will be expanding their stall to accommodate an ice cream machine, having received a green light from the authorities. Nonetheless, there are teeny weenie hitches here and there.
“So far, it’s more of the pros than the cons,” stressed Blen, adding that their main challenge is the language barrier. “We can’t speak Kinyarwanda, so it’s a bit hard bringing in someone to assist us in the kitchen. Selam quickly jumped in, saying, “And then, when you want to buy stuff in the market, but you don’t speak the language, it gets hard.”
Blen and Selam share a special bond, one that intertwines their dreams. For the duo to come to the land of a thousand hills, Blen, who is a year older than Selam, was invited by her Rwandan boyfriend. Given their attachment, the latter joined in, abandoning her plans to relocate to Canada, where her then-boyfriend resided.
Blen attributes their relationship to spending quite considerable time together while growing up. “We went to the same schools, studied in the same class, shared the seat, slept in one room, on one bed, so yeah, we are like twins.” The two are sixth and seventh born, respectively, out of eight. Blen studied Business, while Selam studied Fashion.
Besides, they are very passionate God-fearing Christians, reason they dedicated their Sundays to worshipping their creator. In the future, Selam wishes to stage a fashion show in Kigali, combining the Rwandan ‘Umushanana’ and the Ethiopian wear.
“I am very passionate about fashion and design, so God willing, I will do a fashion show in Rwanda,” she noted.
Photos By Nelly Mwiza
