Every list of the DMV’s most notable businesses tends to draw from the same well: soul food institutions, Black-owned bookstores, beauty brands born from a side hustle. Those businesses matter, and plenty of them are excellent. But a parallel economy has grown up alongside them, built specifically by African immigrants and their children, and it rarely gets ranked on its own terms. This one does, with a narrower and more conservative list than originally planned. Three businesses considered for this ranking could not be confirmed as currently operating, or in one case could not be confirmed as African-owned at all, and were dropped rather than included on the strength of outdated or conflicting sourcing.
1. Elfegne, formerly Zenebech, Adams Morgan, Washington DC
This Ethiopian restaurant has one of the longest continuous runs of any African-owned business in the city, though it no longer operates under its original name. Zenebech Dessu and Gebrehanna Demissie opened it as an injera bakery in 1993, expanded it into a full restaurant by 1999, and the family rebranded the Adams Morgan location as Elfegne in recent years. Under either name, it has stayed in the same family’s hands, and Elfegne was still drawing fresh press coverage and Michelin Guide attention as of May 2026, according to Eater DC.
2. Das Ethiopian Cuisine, Georgetown, Washington DC
This entry required a correction. The Georgetown space once belonged to Zed’s Ethiopian Restaurant, run by Zed Wondemu, but Zed’s closed permanently. In 2011, Sileshi Alifom, an Ethiopian-born former hotel consultant, opened Das Ethiopian Cuisine in the same townhouse, a business he still runs today and which continues to draw Michelin Guide recognition, according to the Michelin Guide. The restaurant carries the neighborhood’s Ethiopian dining tradition forward, but under a different founder than originally credited.
3. Kefa Café, Silver Spring, Maryland
Ethiopian immigrant Abeba Tsegaye and her siblings Abiy and Lene Tsegaye opened this coffee shop on Bonifant Street in 1996. The café marked its 30th anniversary on June 20, 2026, with a community celebration and newly unveiled facade improvements supported by Montgomery Housing Partnership, according to Bethesda Magazine. Tsegaye has described the shop’s regulars as family rather than customers, and the café has expanded to two satellite locations inside a Montgomery County library and recreation center, even as Purple Line construction has restricted foot traffic on Bonifant Street for years.
4. Abart Foods, Silver Spring, Maryland
A Ghanaian grocery on Georgia Avenue specializing in staples like kenkey, banku, and fufu flour, with an online store extending its reach to Ghanaian and West African customers outside the DMV. It remains one of the few African-owned retail operations in the region with a documented, currently active online storefront.
5. U Street Parking, Washington DC
Henok Tesfaye started as a parking valet in downtown Washington in the late 1990s and built U Street Parking, named for his first lot at 12th and U Streets, into what the company describes as the leading minority-owned parking management firm in the country. The business remains active today, now operating under the name USP Holdings, with a live company website confirming ongoing operations across airports, stadiums, and commercial parking facilities in the DC region.
6. PMS Parking, DC-Maryland-Virginia region
Owned by Amsale Geletu, this parking enterprise manages airport and venue parking lots across the DMV. Geletu was named this year to the Maryland Commission on African Affairs, according to a release from Governor Wes Moore’s office, a 2026 record that confirms both her role and the business’s current standing.
7. Gabtics LLC, Maryland
Co-founded by Nigerian entrepreneur Tricia Umeh, who serves as CEO, Gabtics focuses on cybersecurity, media, and communications solutions aimed partly at addressing economic challenges within the African immigrant community. This entry rests on a single official source, the same 2026 gubernatorial appointment announcement that confirmed Geletu’s role, so it carries less independent corroboration than the food and parking entries above, but no information was found contradicting it.
Three businesses did not make this list. CMI Management, an Alexandria government contracting firm founded by Abebe “Abe” Abraham in 1989, could not be reconfirmed as currently active beyond a profile written several years ago. Blue Nile Medical Center turned up conflicting location records, one tied to Alexandria, Virginia, another to a business of the same name in Stafford, further south, and the discrepancy could not be resolved. And an attorney initially included under a Ghanaian and Kenyan heritage description, drawn from an official state commission announcement, directly contradicts his own law firm’s biography, which states he was born in Washington, DC and has lived in Maryland his entire life. Rather than force ten entries, this ranking holds at seven, each confirmed through a named, dated source.