Both of the famously competing side-by-side purveyors of felafel are now open. (Credit: Richard Salame/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT – The Falafel Sahyoun store owned by Fouad Mustapha Sahyoun, which closed in October, reopened yesterday, his son told L’Orient Today.
Here’s what we know:
• The shop, one of the two competing inheritors of the original 1933 Falafel Sahyoun’s legacy, reopened yesterday, Jan. 3, at its storefront on Damascus Street in Bechara al-Khoury.
• The business closed in late October as a result of skyrocketing costs of electricity and ingredients amid Lebanon’s economic crisis and the collapse of the Lira.
• Since late October, Fouad Sahyoun’s brother, Zoheir Mustapha Sahyoun, has continued to sell falafel out of his storefront, which is next door. The brothers have famously been business rivals ever since a 2006 falling-out.
• “It is a new year, new beginning, as we [have] always been loyal to our customers. After receiving many requests, we decided to reopen, continue to offer [the] best quality and be part of Lebanon’s history,” Fouad Sahyoun’s son Mustapha, speaking for his side of the family, told L’Orient Today.
• Sahtein.
