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Mahmoud Farah of Scott's Shawarma
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Scott's Shawarma is located at 1400 Roseneath Road inside Scott's Provisions market.
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Scott's Shawarma is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
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Art at the Scott's Shawarma counter
The warm, sultry scent of holiday spices — cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice — may conjure thoughts of pumpkin pie this time of year, but in the Middle East or at a New York convenience store hot line, adding cayenne to the mix rockets thoughts, and stomachs, straight to Shawarma Land.
A riff on a gyro, chicken, lamb and beef shawarma turn on a spit, from which slices are carved and layered with garlic and tahini sauces and assorted salads and placed in a pita. But rotating roasted meats is where the gyro comparisons stop. Shawarma kebabs are marinated longer and have more diverse toppings, especially those prepared daily by Mahmoud Farah at Scott’s Shawarma, a counter-service grab-and-go concept located within the Scott’s Provisions market at 1400 Roseneath Road.
Farah hails from Palestine, but grew up in Jerusalem in Qalandia Camp, a refugee camp established by the Red Cross in 1949. The camp remains under Israeli control. Farah describes Israeli soldiers regularly pointing guns at him as a child. “At night,” he says, “soldiers would take my father for six or seven hours and then release him in the morning. You don’t see this covered in the news, but it’s life. We never knew if he would come back.”
At 18, Farah moved to New York to study computer science. He started several businesses, including a valet parking company with 20 employees that eventually became a casualty of the pandemic. But what he really loved was cooking, beginning at King of Falafel & Shawarma, which won a Vendy award for best New York street cart in 2010. After slinging falafel and shawarma with the king — Freddy Zeideia — for five years, Farah was ready to open his own truck. He took what he learned about fresh food and smiling customer service with him, running his own food truck in New York until his family expanded. After the birth of his first child, Farah decided it was time to move. His best friend, Moo Mohammad, general manager of Scott’s Provisions, suggested Richmond.
The line at Scott’s Shawarma often starts before the counter opens at 11:30 a.m. At its location inside a large neighborhood market, you can’t help but know when Farah is there, which is pretty much every day from 11 a.m until midnight. The aroma of garlic, tahini, lemon and slowly roasting meat wafts outside to the sidewalk. For beef and lamb shawarma, Farah trims and cleans top round of beef and lamb shoulders, removing the fat and sinew from the cuts. He then slices and marinates the meats overnight before layering and stacking them on a skewer. Individual portions are shaved to order. For chicken shawarma, chicken breasts and thighs meet the same fate. Falafel is ground, seasoned and fried by hand. “Nothing is ever frozen,” Farah says, “and all of the sauces are homemade.”
Farah feeds a core group of rabid regulars, whom he knows by their names and orders. While prepping and assembling plates, he gently greets hungry mouths and third-party delivery drivers carrying to-go bags. How busy this place actually is — he serves about 100 sandwiches, plus almost as many plates, during lunch alone — escapes customers because he works calmly, swiftly and efficiently, always with a smile on his face.
Asking Farah what to order becomes a tutorial on New York street food. “Try the white sauce,” he says. “It’s famous in New York. It gets drizzled on everything: rice, chicken, lamb.” A creamy blend of yogurt, mayo, oregano and even more spices he won’t name, the thin drizzle makes the tangy meats pop.
Farah says of his partnership with Scott’s Provisions, “We have became a family here. One held together by tahini, tabbouleh and love.”
Scott's Shawarma is open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
