In 1966, Elsa Rezene brought her entrepreneurial spirit to Minnesota from Eritrea, Africa. Before founding the longest-running black-owned furniture business in Minneapolis-St. Paul, she honed her sales craft offering beads, incense and jewelry. A generation later, Tetra carries on his mother’s legacy, treating customers like family by embracing the lost art of customer service. While trends come and go, operations have remained the same at Elsa’s – sometimes creating liabilities to the bottom line.