Star Bukri’s Restaurant and Catering stands as a tribute to the late Bukri Yirgu and 35 years of Ethiopian flavor.
GARLAND, Texas — A Garland restaurant known for its Ethiopian cooking is temporarily closed after a vehicle slammed through its front wall and window Sunday afternoon.
Video obtained by WFAA shows a car plowing into Star Bukri’s Restaurant and Catering, a longtime community fixture off Shiloh Road. The crash happened around 4 p.m., just as the business was closing.
“We were closing. Two customers had just gotten up and walked out — five minutes later, he crashed,” owner Daniel Kassahun said. “He said he tried to stop, but he must have hit the gas instead.”
Kassahun said the crash was accidental and that no one was seriously hurt, though his son and an employee were only a few feet from the impact.
“My son was there — inches away,” he said. “The counter came through the kitchen. Everything crumbled right in front of them. But no one was hurt, and that’s what matters most. Cars and walls can be replaced; human beings cannot.”
Kassahun founded Star Bukri’s in 1989 in Los Angeles before moving the business to Garland in 1993 with his late wife. The restaurant — part market, part catering kitchen — focuses on Ethiopian cuisine such as injera made from teff grain and richly spiced stews developed by his late wife, Bukri Yirgu, a professional chef.
“She came up with the sauce nobody else could make — from scratch, with her own spices,” Daniel said. “That’s what made our food special, and that’s the legacy she left for us.”
Bukri died of COVID-19 in 2021 after more than a month in the hospital. Her husband and their children have continued running the restaurant ever since.
“Even when my wife passed away, we kept it open — because this is her dream,” he said. “Now it’s our responsibility to keep it going.”
Kassahun said the crash happened just as the family planned to celebrate 35 years in business. He expects to reopen after insurance and repairs are complete — even if that means starting small with take-out service.
“We’ll definitely reopen — stronger, better, with full energy,” he said. “Life goes on. What started as her dream is now the legacy we carry forward.”
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