Bar Zilli

Bar Zilli was built during the late stages of Italian colonial rule[2] and was architecturally modeled according to the art style of Art Deco. In the late 1970s, Tekleab Habtemariam took ownership of the bar. The name "Bar Zilli" was coined by Habtemariam, who had retained ownership of Bar Zilli until his death in 2018. In the present day, it is managed and owned by his family.

Bar Zilli is an easily-recognizable building that was featured in a Fodor's Architectural publication. The architecture is described as featuring a "curved façade with a mix of central vertical windows and small horizontal strips at the corners are the reasons why experts have called this structure “idiosyncratic” and “distinctive.”.[3]

According to a New York Times article written in 2017," The Bar Zilli building looks like an old-fashioned radio set, with windows like tuning buttons."[4]