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Lebanese Bakery is now open at 6215 W. Broad St., offering traditional Lebanese fare from baked goods to shawarma and fatayer, pies stuffed with spinach and other ingredients. (Photo by Stephanie Ganz)
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The owner of Lebanese Bakery, Rabih Al-Aawar (Photo courtesy Lebanese Bakery)
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Kibbeh, made from ground beef, bulgur wheat and spices (Photo by Stephanie Ganz)
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Lebanese Bakery serves shawarma on Tuesdays and Fridays. (Photo courtesy Lebanese Bakery)
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Al-Aawar built the oven he uses at the bakery by hand. (Photo by Stephanie Ganz)
Growing up in the mountain village of Qarnayel, Lebanon, Rabih Al-Aawar was inspired by watching his mother make their food from scratch every day — flatbreads from a brick oven, fresh vegetables, and lamb with buttery fat, crispy phyllo and honey. As a teenager in a tight-knit community of mostly Druze families, Al-Aawar opened his first bakery at 17, hiring local women to bake the flatbread he mixed and shaped by hand.
Almost 40 years later, in the former shell of a Little Caesar’s at 6125 W. Broad St., Al-Aawar has opened Lebanese Bakery, a culmination of decades of entrepreneurship. Al-Aawar immigrated to the U.S. in 2000, and since debuting Lebanese Bakery in late December, he says business has been good and the reviews enthusiastic.
As we chat in the restaurant on a Monday, the only day of the week the bakery is closed, potential customers try the door and peer in the window before consulting the posted hours and retreating to their cars. “They’ll come back tomorrow,” Al-Aawar says with a knowing smile.
The road to Lebanese Bakery was beset with challenges, from an ill-fated attempt to wholesale homemade pita bread to a business deal gone south and a landlord who refused compensation after damage from a flood destroyed Al-Aawar’s equipment. “God will forgive you,” Al-Aawar recalls telling the landlord, who is from a place near Al-Aawar’s hometown.
After the flood, Al-Aaawar fell back on his masonry skills for work and doubled down on his plan to open a bakery, ultimately finding a space in the Tan A shopping center at the corner of Broad Street and Horsepen Road.
The bakery’s already devoted customer base was there when I returned on Sunday, clustered around tables loaded with za’atar-spiced pita chips; hummus; a pilaf of lentils, rice, and caramelized onions called modadara; and lahambaajen, made-to-order flatbreads with various toppings. While Lebanese music hummed in the background, guests stood waiting for to-go containers brimming with stuffed cabbage, grape leaves and squash.
Authenticity is key, and Al-Aawar captures the flavors of his homeland in his suitcase, every few weeks traveling back home to pack it with spices, including the key ingredients in his hand-blended za’atar. A 150-year-old Lebanese bakery, Al Bohsali, supplies an assortment of traditional sweets for Al-Aawar’s bakery — pistachio-studded baklava, date cookies and the syrup-soaked semolina confection namoura.
Freshness is Al-Aawar’s chief concern, and he says his staff, which includes his ex-wife, Majeda; three children Nizar, Nour, and Nora; and son-in-law Bryan, would agree that he’s vigilant. “I opened this for them,” Al-Aawar says. “I want them to have good futures, a good business, to keep this here. That’s why it has to be fresh. It’s for their overall well-being. We need this healthy food here.”
Lebanese Bakery is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Chicken and beef shawarma is available on Tuesdays and Fridays, and there is a hot bar sampler platter available daily.
