Tropical pictures of some beautiful, far-off tourist destination cover the bright yellow walls of this spot on Clark Street. A quick glance at the menu suggests Ethiopian, but look a little harder and you'll find that the owners are actually from Eritrea, a small country that gained its independence from neighboring Ethiopia in 1993. The cafe's namesake—Asmara—is the Eritrean capital.

The menu boasts Ethiopian favorites like tibsi begie, savory cubes of lamb meat cooked with spicy berbere sauce and served with either spongy injera or regular bread, but also has a few pasta dishes that seem totally random. Owner Kidane Mihtsun, who came to the U.S. in 1990 and worked for AT&T and Panasonic before getting into accounting and the restaurant business, says "Eritrea was an Italian colony for about 700 years," which explains why the menu offers dishes like salsata, macaroni or spaghetti with egg, parmesan cheese and homemade sauce ($9).

Because Mihtsun also lived in Sudan for four years, he decided to bring a few of the country's breakfasts to the menu. The extremely affordable Sudanese favorite foule mudammes ($5) is a mixture of crushed fava beans with tomatoes, onions, feta cheese, jalapeño peppers, olive oil and seasoning. A variety of hot beverages, like tea, coffee and lattes, make a great accompaniment to any of the menu options.

Most of the restaurant's clientele comes from East Africa, but the owners create a welcoming atmosphere for everyone, even those who can't read the Tigrinya (one of Eritrea's three languages) subtitles for the American movies showing on the single TV screen.

Centerstage Reviewer: Alicia Eler