Rising Stars: Meet Gerti Begaj of Detroit

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gerti Begaj

Hi Gerti, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born and raised in Albania. Moved to Michigan when i was 18 years old. My restaurant journey starts as a server assistant at Tallulah wine bar and bistro when i was 19years old in 2013 . Within 4 years i was now the GM at Tallulah and had discovered the passion for hospitality, good food, wine and spirits. The passion pushed me to grow and with the owner of Tallulah and a few other partners I opened BESA as the Managing Partner on October 20th 2018.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
BESA opened its doors a year before covid hit. The firs year was beautiful and fun with the right amount of challenges and hiccups that help structure a new business for success. In 2020 covid hit and that was a hard and unknown period of time. With love, passion and hard work we managed to open the doors again and continue to serve our great guest for the past 4 years.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I manage all the different parts of the restaurant and the business . From finances to hiring, training, cost control, reviews and make sure that i am in the restaurant during service to connect with the guest and support the staff. I specialize in wine, and i have built a beautiful wine cellar here at BESA. We won best wine bar in Detroit for two years in a row.
I am most proud of our staff. Half the staff has been with us since day one and the rest has been here for over 2 years. This is very rare in the restaurant industry.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Swimming in the Adriatic sea.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.besadetroit.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/besadetroit/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BESADETROIT/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/besadetroit/