Detroit: BESA
This week we are enjoying happy hour at another one of Detroit’s fine dining restaurants: BESA. The word BESA, in Albanian culture, is a pledge of honor and its literal meaning is ”to keep the promise”. BESA opened its doors in November of 2018 and has been going strong ever since.
From March of 2019, until the end of October of 2019, our son Dylan worked at BESA. He was fresh out of culinary school and jumped in feet first at the opportunity to work at an up-and-coming restaurant like BESA. The time Dylan was at BESA we dined there frequently, mostly in the bar for happy hour.
The atmosphere at BESA is stylish, modern and upbeat. The staff is friendly and very attentive, and the food has always been creative and delicious.
They have a beautiful lower level, for larger parties.
BESA’s managing partners. Mario Camaj and Gerti Begaj are season veterans in the hospitality business, having owned and operated Tallulah Wine Bar in Birmingham.
The Executive Chef, Nick Geftos, a Michigan native, left Michigan to study at Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts in Las Vegas. Following school, he worked stints in Las Vegas at Trump Tower, and Wolfgang Puck’s Spago and Cut Restaurants. In 201,1 at age 22, he decided to come back home and sent resumes to 6 different restaurants, including the Tallulah Wine Bar in Birmingham, where he quickly worked his way up to Sous Chef and stayed there for 2 years.
In 2013 Mario Camaj, Tallulah’s former house manager, bought Tallulah and asked Geftos to come back and be his Executive chef. In 2019, when the chef position opened up at BESA, it was an easy decision for Camaj to offer Geftos the position where he is still going strong today.
BESA is a great place for Happy Hour. You can eat well, enjoy a couple drinks and get the full experience BESA has to offer without breaking the bank. They offer Happy hour M – F from 4 – 6:30 where you can get
30% off all their appetizers and salads
Draft beers for $4
Glasses of wine for $6
A selection of craft cocktails for $8.
As always, we try to spend around $30.
To take advantage of their Happy Hour you have to sit in the bar area. This is not a problem for us, because the bar is always our favorite place to sit. We ordered a beer, a glass of wine and a couple of their appetizers. There are a wide variety of appetizers to choose from. Everything from Roasted Olives to Prime Steak Tartare. We decided on the Roasted Eggplant Toast and Roasted Olives.
The Roasted Eggplant Toast was delicious, it was served open faced with thinly sliced roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers, Gjize (an Albanian sour Ricotta cheese) and topped with fresh herbs. The roasted olives were quite surprising since we didn’t know what to expect. They came in a bowl and they were warm with Fresno chilis, mustard seed and topped with orange zest. I have never thought of eating olives warm and they were super delicious.
BESA is located in the heart of the Downtown area at 600 Woodward Ave at the corner of Woodward and Congress. They are open Mon -Thur from 4-10 and Fri – Sat from 4-11.
Until next time . . . live well, eat well and enjoy life!
-Keith & Teresa Becker
