The Journey to Creating Edmonton’s Tiramisu Bistro
Seble Isaac, owner of Tiramisu Bistro, knew nothing about Edmonton when she arrived here in 1993. In fact, at the airport she had to ask someone if a photo of downtown Edmonton was the city she had just landed in, because all she saw when she was landing was farmland.
“I thought, maybe I’d have to learn how to farm,” said Isaac.
So, how did she end up here and why did she briefly think she would be a farmer? The short answer: as the youngest of seven kids, this was a journey to find herself.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Isaac was born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Her mother worked in the airline industry and sent her on trips from a young age. At 17 years old, Isaac moved to Italy from Ethiopia.
“My main city was Rome,” said Isaac. “I grew up traveling so it was fine for me to find jobs in other cities in Italy and go work there.”
She worked in the restaurant industry, but she also did some modelling while she was there. While this all sounds fabulous, she said “I just felt lost.”
So begins her journey to Canada. She went to the Canadian Embassy and after a three-month process she was offered to go to Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver. She had family in Toronto and Montreal.
“I didn’t want to go to any of those places,” said Isaac. “The whole idea was to figure it out on my own. I had no idea Canada was so big.”
The Canadian Government offered her the opportunity to come to Alberta’s capital city and she quickly accepted, despite knowing nothing about our city.
She worked at several restaurants before moving on to the government. She was with the Government of Alberta in child welfare and then on to the federal level, where she finally got to work in a sector that she really wanted to be in, immigration. She was there until she started a family and stayed home with her three daughters for 10 years.
And now we get to the beginnings of one of 124 Street’s favourite spots, Tiramisu Bistro. Isaac loved to entertain and cook and was always told she should open something.
“I’d been trying to decide whether I should go back to work for the government for a while. One day, I was washing dishes, and I was thinking ‘I just can’t figure out what to do,’” remembers Isaac. “And then ‘Cafe Tiramisu,’ meaning ‘lift me up,’ just came to me.”
The first iteration was a small restaurant with a kids’ space “breathing room” filled with iPads, books and couches so parents could get a moment to themselves.
“The story I was told was that it takes five years for you to be busy,” said Isaac. But this was not her story. “We were so busy when we opened that people would share one table of four; you would have strangers sitting next to each other. They’d have to wave staff down. I think at that time if Instagram was as big as it is now, we would’ve gone down.”
Now, 12 years in and with around 50 employees, the space has evolved and includes the Lift Me Up Bakery & Market with cinnamon buns the size of your head and a variety of breads, local and import goods, and many other items.
“One of the things I realized in Edmonton after having traveled is that there was more opportunity to grow here,” said Isaac. “All those beautiful places, where it seems like everything is taken, where are you going to start? Where’s the space? I knew even at that young age that Edmonton could be the right place for all those opportunities and that growth — and I still think Edmonton has so much room for growth.”
So, is it safe to say, this journey across the world to find herself was a success?
“I’ve found community, purpose and meaning in Edmonton. I'm so glad that I was able to find the space to create a lift me up experience.”