Near Hayat Hospital in Bole District lies a cosy and traditionally-furnished establishment dubbed Shifta Restaurant.

For an outing in the busy neighbourhood of Addis Abeba, the name – literally translated as “bandit” – may sound uncanny. On a chilly evening last week, a few dozen regulars braved the cold and sat in small circles at the establishment, enjoying refreshing beverages and Caribbean cuisine. The vegan dishes are the restaurant's specialities.

But Shifta Restaurant has gained a reputation for something else. It serves homemade beverages like tella, an Ethiopian beer brewed at home. Customers know the beverage is on the menu, seeing a long and thin stick topped with a tin can near the entrance, a symbol long used to mark traditional tella houses.

Once ubiquitous in Addis Abeba and other towns, the tella houses have grown less common as conventional beer and industrial liquor gained popularity.

However, the beverage seems to be making a comeback, suffice the scene at Shifta Restaurant.

The atmosphere was lively. Waiters rushed around a dining hall brightly lit with red neon lights and decorated with various paintings with an African motif. A supervisor stood in the back, directing the show. Laughter rang across the room as patrons made the most of an evening out. They were catching up, talking about the Easter holiday events, work and anything else that seemed interesting.

Seife Temam was among the crowd at Shifta that night. He grew up drinking tella his mother used to brew at home, a legacy that makes him consider himself a connoisseur of the traditional beverage. Seife sat at a table with a handful of friends.

He is a regular at Shifta, present at various art events and exhibitions the establishment hosts intermittently.

"Tella is a drink I feel less worried about drinking even when I am not feeling well," said Seife.

The bold flavour and the nostalgia he associates with the drink keep him coming back. Like most aficionados, Seife does not know the alcohol content in a glass of tella. But this does little to discourage his consumption, oftentimes inviting foreign guests to Shifta to let them try it out.

Though Seife's love for tella stems partly from nostalgia for the days of his youth, other patrons have other reasons for choosing the beverage.

Naod Lemma, 28, sat at a small table in the corner with a couple of friends. He finds tella affordable: A silver beaker of the stuff goes for 50 Br at Shifta. Waiters pour the drink from plastic jugs. Shifta also serves conventional alcoholic beverages. Various domestic beers are on the menu for 50 Br a bottle.

Shifta Restaurant does not offer other traditional alcoholic beverages such as tej, a sort of mead made from honey and hop leaves. Unlike Seife, Naod seldom drunk tella or other homemade alcoholic beverages such as Areqe (a.k.a katikala), a spirit with markedly higher alcohol content.

However, a few months ago, at a dinner with a friend at Shifta, he discovered he enjoyed drinking tella. He gave in to a bit of peer pressure and tried a cup.

Naod has been coming back for more since.

“The taste is amazing,” Naod said.

Tella is brewed from barley, wheat, maize, sorghum or teff. Although fermentation methods differ based on localities and economic factors, the basic process remains relatively uniform in homes. Dried and ground gesho (shiny-leaf buckthorn) leaves are essential ingredients. The brewing process also involves malt, which serves the same function as hops in beer production.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the drink has an alcohol content of between two and four percent, while, if filtered, the volume could go up to six percent, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Tej and Areqe have alcohol contents of around seven percent and 45pc, respectively.

Shifta had initially opened its doors near the Bole Medhanialem area almost four years ago with an initial capital of 300,000 Br. It changed its address to its current location last year.

Maranata Teferi, a major shareholder and manager of the restaurant, is himself a tella lover. Initially, many of his customers would not expect homemade drinks like tella served in upscale restaurants such as his. Eventually, tella became a homemade beverage most ordered at Shifta Restaurant.

“It’s quickly becoming popular,” Maranata told Fortune.

Shifta sells up to 800lt of tella each month. This is more than double the volume the restaurant used to sell a year ago. Maranatha's success rekindled the potential of a homebrewed drink for industrial and commercial opportunities.

Other restaurants and pubs follow suit.

Sello Craft Tella, a traditional bar in the Bole Medhanialem area, and Deshesho Restaurant around Megenagna began to offer tella to patrons.

The trend reflects a traditional beverage comeback, growing in popularity among Addis Abeba’s urbanites.

Tibebu Regassa is also one who has developed a penchant for tella. He frequents an establishment on the other side of the city around Qera, near Bulgaria Mazoria, run by the Gojjam Development Association. The place hosts customers from all backgrounds, low- and middle-income groups. It was packed to the brim during a visit last week, with around half the patrons drinking tella. They pay 80 Br for a litre.