A thousand hills to heaven

We found Heaven while walking near our hotel in Kigali. Yeah really. It is the name of a restaurant and inn high up on a hill. But we found out when we went back for dinner that night that it is so much more. For instance, Heaven houses an art gallery, a community development project, and a vocational training center.

The owners of Heaven are Americans Alissa and Josh Ruxin. They have an interesting background. According to Heaven's website, growing up in San Francisco surrounded by a family of health professionals, Alissa pursued a career in health after graduating from Wellesley College and earning her Masters in Public Health at Harvard. Her passion shifted when she moved to Rwanda. Through her volunteer work with Generation Rwanda, an organization providing university scholarships for orphans, she became inspired to do something for the many Rwandan youth who found themselves unemployed and without the resources to pay for higher education. Alissa decided to create a business offering vocational training and employment for young adults and Heaven Restaurant was born. Since opening, Alissa has actively managed and trained Heaven's staff in all areas of hospitality including customer service, culinary skills, housekeeping, security and office administration.

Josh is Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and the founder of Health Builders, which improves management systems in 86 health centers across Rwanda and has constructed 5 health facilities serving 150,000 people. Josh’s interest in great food and service have long been a passion, and he spends summers cooking massive multi-course dinners for his extended family and friends.  During Heaven’s first years he was at various times a bartender, rear waiter, busboy, front waiter, maitre de, and executive chef.

High on top of a hill overlooking downtown Kigali, it could be heaven.

We ordered the Chef's seven course tasting menu which paired each course with a glass of wine or a beverage cocktail. Good thing we were walking back to the hotel!

A Heavenly Dawn for me and the Kigali, a variation on a Manhattan, for Vince.

Yum! Dig in!

Heaven Dawa accompanied this course!

We split a Banana Tempura Split (with a trio of homemade frozen yoghurt) for dessert. We did not split the accompanying Spiced Amarula however!

PS If you want to know more about Heaven, Josh wrote a book about its creation called  "A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope and a Restaurant in Rwanda." It was published on November 5, 2013 by Little Brown & Company and is available on Amazon.