1 of 5
Mahmoud Farah, owner of Scott’s Shawarma
2 of 5
Scott’s Shawarma is located at 814 N. Robinson St. in the former Capital Burgers & Dogs space.
3 of 5
Scott’s Shawarma offers dine-in and to-go service.
4 of 5
The dining area at Scott’s Shawarma
5 of 5
Spits inside are stacked with chicken and lamb-and-beef shawarma.
Mahmoud Farah first became known in Richmond as the friendly face slicing meats from sizzling spits and handing out samples of crisp falafel from behind a deli counter inside a Scott’s Addition bodega. Farah originally launched Scott’s Shawarma in February 2022, and the grab-and-go concept slowly but surely gained a faithful following of devotees seeking out his expertly seasoned shawarma and signature zippy white garlic sauce. Now, he’s debuting a dine-in restaurant at 814 N. Robinson St. inside the former Capital Burgers & Dogs space. From Jan. 28- 29, he will host a grand-opening weekend with 50% off the menu.
“It was time to move, time to do something [on my own],” Farah says. “I have another baby daughter [his second], almost 18 months, so I’m thinking about something for them. Today I’m standing on my feet; tomorrow, I don’t know, and I don’t want them to live the life I lived over there.”
Farah, 34, hails from Palestine, but grew up in Jerusalem in Qalandia Camp, a refugee camp established by the Red Cross in 1949. He attended a United Nations high school, and when he was 18, he moved to the U.S.
“When I finished high school and started looking for jobs, the situation wasn’t that good, but I always had that passport,” he says. “I had a cousin in New York, so I came to him.”
Farah would call home the Big Apple home for the next 15 years. There he would operate food carts on the bustling streets of the city and fell under the mentorship of Freddy Zeideia, owner of King of Falafel & Shawarma in Queens. Farah would go on to introduce his own truck, as well as a successful valet business. But that all changed when the pandemic struck and his first child was born. Food called him back, and he relocated to Richmond.
“I started looking for places to rent, and they wanted the last two years of taxes as a business, but we had been out of business for over a year, there was no income,” Farah explains. “I had been getting unemployment. I applied, got refused, got denied.”
Instead, he rented out a deli counter inside Scott’s Provisions on Roseneath Road. He established a loyal customer base and developed such a consistency that, since his departure, he says, patrons have called and texted him about the food not tasting the same. (Despite the market continuing to use the name Scott’s Shawarma for its in-house takeout eatery, Farah’s business is not affiliated with Scott’s Provisions.) Farah also owns a Scott’s Shawarma location inside the Exxon station at 5401 Glenside Drive, though this new space is a more fully realized version of the concept he’s been steadily growing.
“Now we change it up, we’re going to take it to the next level,” says Farah, who still has family in Jerusalem, including his sister, who helps him with social media.
Inside the casual restaurant are about 20 seats, with outdoor tables planned for the spring. Behind the register, patrons can spot two skewers, one stacked with chicken breasts and thighs, the other a 50-50 round of lamb and beef. Farah marinates the meats overnight, slathering them in his undisclosed spice mixture before stacking them and slicing them to order. “It’s a process and not an easy one,” he says.
The shawarma is available in a platter with rice, tabbouleh and hummus, or wrapped in pita or saj, a thin Middle Eastern flatbread similar to a tortilla that’s made in-house. Accoutrements include tangy pickled turnips and sour Jerusalem pickles, along with lettuce, tomato and onions.
"This is not only Middle Eastern food. … I bring [my seasonings] from Jerusalem, but this, I never learned it from Jerusalem, I learned this in New York,” Farah says. “I have that background from New York, so I’m mixing the cuisines. I know the seasonings and sauces from A to Z.”
Sauces are Farah’s specialty, ranging from a velvety housemade tahini to a habanero-spiked hot sauce, a pungent spicy garlic variety, and his wildly popular white sauce.“That is a New York thing, close to tzatziki, but milder than tzatziki. I call it the Scott’s White Sauce,” he says.
Alongside baba ghanouj, hummus, falafel and kofta kebabs — the latter prepared by his wife and sister-in-law — are chicken kebabs, a cheeseburger and French fries. In addition to a larger kitchen, Farah says, the new digs also grant him the opportunity to move into a sparsely occupied RVADine territory: late-night eats.
“[Shawarma] is a night thing, so if you go to the Middle East or New York or Europe these days, you will find shawarma in the night,” he says.
Farah has spent the past six months refreshing the building with the help of his father, brother and friends. Of this next chapter, Farah says, “People used to come [to the old location] supporting us, so I have good memories. But this is the thing I want to build, I want to build this name, this is what I want to do.”
Scott’s Shawarma is open from 11 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. Sunday through Wednesday and from 11 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
