New Syrian Restaurant Opening In Uptown Saint John
SAINT JOHN— A popular Syrian food vendor at local Saint John markets is opening a full restaurant uptown next month.
The Mashawi restaurant will open next month at 96 Germain Street, the former location of Taco Pica, which closed back in May.
The restaurant will be run by Yamama and Zein Al abdin, who came to Saint John from Egypt as refugees three years ago with their three children. Over the past several years they have been operating a popular Syrian food stall, Machawi of Syria, which has become a staple at local markets such as The Saint John Night Market and the Queen Square Farmers Market.
Over the summer, the Al abdin’s opened ChocoZein Cafe at 1 Princess Street, which carries Arabic and Canadian coffee and a variety of desserts, many of them made with their award-winning chocolate. Though the cafe has been doing well, Zein says customers are still craving a spot to get their market food.
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“People love it and they ask always for our food. They came here [asking] ‘what kind of food do you have here?,'” he says. “We have a limited amount of food that we can do out of [the cafe].”
Mashawi’s menu will feature market favourites such as shawarma, falafel, hummus, samosas, along with other traditional Syrian dishes.
Zein says the restaurant may start out with take-out only, given Covid-19 restrictions.
“We’ll see what works with the health department because we’ll have an operation plan for Covid,” he says. “We’ll maybe have four or five tables. It depends on what the recommendations are.”
This will be the second business the Al abdin’s have opened during the Covid-19 pandemic. Though there have been some challenges, they’re confident their customers will support their newest venture too.
“It’s been a challenge during this time. We have no support from any other organization or government. Everything we do by ourselves. It’s been really hard for us, but we’re still working on it. We will not give up,” says Zein.
“We trust ourselves, and we also trust our customers, because they’ve said ‘we love your food and we’d come to your restaurant.’ So we trust them and we’re doing that for them.”
Mashawi will be joining other uptown restaurants Let’s Hummus and LebanOn The Go offering their own takes on Mediterranean food. Zein says Saint Johners are craving more of that kind of food.
“For us, that means our menu is in demand,” he says. “People love it, so it’s good to have more than one place to have ethnic or Mediterranean food. We’ll be serving Syrian food. It’s similar but different in a certain way.”
Mashawi is slated to open in early November. The official open date will be announced on the ChocoZein Cafe Facebook page.