By Marny Hershorn
Walk down any major street in Centretown and chances are you’ll find a shawarma shop. But is there a shawarma war?
There is a reason these businesses thrive: each has something special to offer other than the popular Middle Eastern sandwiches.
It could be the spices or the sauce. It takes more than a good menu to keep customers coming back — it’s all the hard work that has led to the shawarma sensation.
Ali Hraibi, 36, owns three Shawarma King restaurants. He came to Canada in 1992, as a refugee from the small village of Zawatar in South Lebanon. Hraibi had to wait two years to see his family after he received landed immigrant status and a visa. His wife Safaa finally joined him in Canada on their daughter’s second birthday.
Hraibi worked as a dishwasher, cab driver, and kitchen assistant. After three years, Hraibi got lucky. He often ate at Shawarma King on Bank Street and the owners told him they planned to sell. He bought the restaurant, but there was a problem: Hraibi had no idea how to cook Lebanese food. He asked an uncle who owned a restaurant in Lebanon for some long-distance cooking lessons.
Hraibi says people always ask how he became successful.
“I had to take the chance. If I don’t make it, that’s it. This is why I worked 20 hours a day for one year.”
Hraibi says there is no shawarma war going on. But he admits there may be confusion over the name of his restaurant. Shawarma King or Shawarma’s King?
“They’re the same. The first store was called Shawarma’s King. The guy who put the sign up accidentally forgot the “s” so we go by Shawarma King now,” Hraibi says.
Hraibi says he recently changed the name of one of the “King” eateries to Shawarma Queen because the locations were too close together. Customers know he owns both, he says.
“I don’t want to fight with myself, so I want to start delivery over there with a different name, a different menu so I’ll be my own competition,” Hraibi says.
Moustafa Hajar and Nadim Hassouli, who co-own Marroush International Shawarma on Elgin Street, have a success story of their own. Hajar and Hassouli have run the eatery for 14 years. They are known for their shtick and their shawarma.
Hajar is called the Shawarma Nutsy. “Nutsy” is the politically correct version of Seinfeld’s Soup Nazi.
The three coffees he drinks when he works overnight help him put on a show, he says.
“I’m a quiet person at home, but business needs action… when I come here I have to go crazy,” Hajar says.
These days Hajar ships his shawarma around the world.
“I sent shawarma to Winnipeg, to France, Las Vegas, to Italy. People take it with them in packs of ice with sauce on the side. I have pictures of people standing beside famous places, and they are holding shawarma from Marroush. I don’t know if they eat them…or throw them out. ”
There is a fight for territory on Bank Street, but Hajar doesn’t think he will lose loyal customers. “I call it a shawarma war between them,” Hajar says.
Shawarma King originally had two partners, but they didn’t always get along. One of them finally decided to leave and opened a Shawarma City nearby, Hajar says.
“There are no less than about 15 shawarma places on Bank Street… and I don’t think they will survive.”