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August 29-September 4, 2002 food E.R.A. Bar and Restaurant
E.R.A. Bar and Restaurant2743 Poplar St., 215-769-7008. Appetizers, $1.25; entrees, $5.25-$8 Mon.-Sat., 11-2 a.m., food served 4-10 p.m. Not wheelchair accessible. Smoking permitted at the bar. Cash only. Ordinarily we tend to frequent restaurants that happen to have bars, not bars that happen to have restaurants. But at Fairmount's E.R.A., essentially a room with an enormous O-shaped, burnished-wood bartop, the tasty, fresh Ethiopian cuisine is practically a secret. You have to ask for the menu, of which there seems to be only one copy. You might notice you are the only one ordering food while your nearest neighbors seem content with liquid provisions. Meanwhile, other factors -- a jukebox stocked with R&B and soul CDs, two mounted televisions and a pink strip of neon illuminating rows of liquor bottles -- all conspire to give the impression that this is first and foremost a watering hole. And yet, in the backroom kitchen there is a quiet culinary event being prepared. It is obvious when warm platters lined with injera and small stainless steel bowls of food arrive. Yedoro alecha, a mildly spiced chicken, is a distant saucy relative of Indian curry with ginger, turmeric and a tiny bite of chile pepper. And yebeg tibs, chunks of lamb in a spicy red pepper sauce, showcases livelier seasoning. All entrees are served with two of five choices of vegetables. Best is the goman, chopped collard greens and onions slick with clarified butter, and just-sweet atikelt wat, a blend of green beans and baby carrots. You'll soon be eagerly scooping it up with yielding fistfuls of injera, wondering if E.R.A. is indeed a secret, how it could possibly stay that way for very long.
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