Good food tastes so much better combined with warm hospitality. Add berbere spice and teff flour and you'll wind up at the winning charms of Caffe Weini, a tiny but bright spot among the concentration of Ethiopian businesses in the Pinehurst neighborhood.

Months ago, on my first stop at Weini -- named for the grown daughter of the husband-and-wife team that runs the six-table cafe -- I fruitlessly tugged on the door before noticing the restaurant was closed Tuesdays. But wait! A stranger from the neighboring Ethiopian grocery whisked around the corner to fetch one of the owners from the nearby laundermat. On arrival, she was clearly prepared to cook me lunch if my heart was set on it, day off or not. I pledged to return instead during business hours, and the reception has been equally kind.

		Karen Ducey / P-I
	A combo dish features kilwa/tibs (lamb, beef or chicken) on injera bread, dero (chicken stew and vegetables) and flax sauce, and coteleti.

The Ethiopian food at Weini is a cut above the norm, but part of the fun of the place is its varied menu and non-traditional look. (Other cultures represented on the menu, we were told, reflected the influence of Ethiopia's neighbors, history and even its one-time Italian occupiers). It is painted the color of ripe papaya, and looks as though it was decorated from the prop room of a stock Italian restaurant, complete with faux marble cherubs and framed drawings of profiteroles and biscotti. Espresso is served.

Coteleti, a crisp, breaded, chicken cutlet pounded thin, sits on a plate of spaghetti ($10.99). The mashed fava bean dish known as foul ($6), a standard in Egypt as well as Sudan, arrives a little oilier than I usually like, but spicily sparked up by jalapeņos and garnished with hard-boiled egg, feta cheese and other good staples.

Our favorite overall was the more standard vegetable platter ($9.50), whose round of injera bread the size of a cake platter is studded by dips and stews. We swore we couldn't finish the plate, but then ate every bite -- the mounds of cooked potatoes and carrots, the spinach, the cabbage, the flaxseed spread, with the seasoning on each tuned to a different note.

For even heartier appetites, try the lamb tibs ($9.50, chicken or beef also available). The bites of meat run chewy rather than tender, burning pleasantly from peppery awaze sauce. At every course, our hosts sought assurances that we were adequately fed and found the meal to our taste. They offered dessert ("a creamy dessert cake that we take pride to serve," says the menu), but we were full already and their kindnesses were sweet enough.