In our sprawling city, It’s not uncommon to find the most incredible flavors in a hole-in-the-strip-mall joint that’s squeezed between an auto zone, a 99 cent store, and a 24 hour donut shop.  That is certainly the case with Palm Grove Ethiopian Restaurant.  It’s a tiny, unassuming eatery that is full of surprise after surprise.  The food is colorful, delicious, abundant, and very affordable.  The injera is fresh baked, the menu diverse, and the coffee is not just brewed to order, its roasted to order!  It’s the best option in the neighborhood for vegans and vegetarians, and the top choice for the folks of the BLVD Collective.  We are a group of about 60 people on and around Westmoreland BLVD that share ideas, meals, friendship, and monthly art events.  When we heard that Palm Grove was struggling, we put our heads together and thought up a way that we could use our power in numbers to help them out.

On Saturday we hosted a “Save Palm Grove” lunch and filled every one of the 30 available seats.  It was important for us to come together and show the owner that our community values her business.  And we wanted to make sure we strengthened their presence on Yelp.  A positive Yelp profile is really essential for a restaurant in an area that doesn’t have much foot traffic.  A few of us are photograhers, so we snapped some shots during the lunch to spice up the Yelp profile.  And after the lunch, we hosted a “Yelping Party” and all created accounts and gave positive, well thought out reviews.  The event was a great success, and will hopefully help bring more business to our neighborhood treasure!