EHOP and Burger Queen

One way I amuse myself while crawling through the traffic in Addis Ababa is to look for imitations of American businesses and restaurants. Thanks to the many entrepreneurs in Addis, I am not often disappointed. Some of them just straight up steal American business names, as in the case of Pizza Hut, Friday's, and Apple Computer, but if you go inside, you realize it is definitely not an international chain. Then there are others who use a business's name and the matching font, but add or subtract letters, so it's not quite so dishonest, as in The Olives Garden and Mariott Hotel (one r). Then there's Kaldi's Coffee, which in name is original, but if you went inside you would find it strikingly similar to another coffee establishment, from the black clothes and green aprons with a circular decal, to the poetry painted on the walls, to the furniture and menu boards. And my favorites are the businesses that turn American names into something new, the best of which are probably Burger Queen and EHOP (Ethiopian House of Pancakes).