Ali Badreddine, owner of Le Beret Rouge on Bank Street, says he plans to change the name of his shop back to something that will let customers know it is a shawarma restaurant.
A Bank Street shawarma restaurant is changing its name after a failed experiment in trying to attract Francophone customers.
Best known as late-night pit stops for post-party clubgoers, shawarma restaurants are a common sight in Centretown. Shawarma is meat roasted on a rotating spit. It is often used to stuff pita wraps.
Between Catherine and Albert streets, there are four shawarma restaurants on Bank Street within nine blocks of each other. Three have similar names: Shawarma King, Shawarma Town and Shawarma Laguna. The fourth, Le Beret Rouge, is an exception.
Le Beret Rouge looks like any other shawarma restaurant in Ottawa. Inside, the smell of spiced meat is overwhelming. Large skewers of lamb, chicken and beef are grilled rotisserie-style behind a wooden counter.
But outside, Le Beret Rouge – specifically, the name on its black, yellow and red sign – stands out.
Nick Kaufman, a frequent customer, says the restaurant’s unusual name initially attracted but baffled him.
“I was walking down Bank Street and saw this sign and thought it had such a different and interesting name,” says Kaufman. “But it was a little bit confusing. . when you look for shawarma, you look for a place with ‘shawarma’ in the name.”
Owner Ali Badreddine agrees.
Badreddine has been running Le Beret Rouge for over two months. He says its previous owner, Hayan Abdullah, sold the business to him in January after it started losing money.
Now, says Badreddine, Le Beret Rouge has become much more profitable during his short tenure as owner.
Originally called Shawarma City, Abdullah gave the restaurant its French name after he bought it several years ago. His goal was to attract more Francophone customers.
But Badreddine says the name change was a bad business decision.
“Since January when I took over, the customers themselves ask me, ‘Why did you name it like that?’ The word – ‘Le Beret Rouge’ – in French, it means ‘the red cap.’ What does that have to do with the business?” he says. “I (don’t mind) if it’s French or English as long as it describes what the restaurant is.”
Badreddine adds that he plans to change the sign when the weather gets warmer.
“Either I bring it back to its previous name, which was Shawarma City (or change it to something) that describes Lebanese cuisine.”
Giving a French name to a Lebanese restaurant is a poor marketing strategy, says Ian Lee, a professor at Carleton University’s Sprott School of Business.
“There’s a tradition in the restaurant industry of using French names for restaurants because it connotes, suggests or infers high end, prestige,” Lee says.
“They’re connoting or suggesting higher end, sophisticated food when in fact, it’s shawarma, which is almost takeout . . . This sends the wrong message and confuses people.”
Instead, he suggests a “sufficiently-anglicized” Arabic-sounding name would draw more customers.