Beirut’s Tabbara family has served falafel for 100 years, as the next generation prepares to take over

The Story

For more than a century, the Tabbara family has been serving falafel to residents of Beirut, surviving wars and conflicts as the business has passed down through generations.

Mohammed Tabbara, 82, still takes orders and assembles sandwiches at the shop in Beirut’s Hamra district, where customers can buy $3 sandwiches made with deep-fried ground fava beans wrapped in flat Lebanese bread with pickled cucumber, tomatoes, parsley, thick tahini sauce and homemade dark red-hot pepper paste.

Tabbara said he has clients “spread all over the world,” adding that “They all come to eat falafel because they know the flavor and the taste,” as a customer waited at the counter in the busy neighbourhood.

The shop’s fourth generation, Ziad Tabbara, 40, has been working full time with his father for the past six years; Mohammed described passing on the culinary craft as a continuation of the family’s heritage. Ziad said, “God willing, I will continue to offer the same flavor.”

The business began in 1914, when Ziad’s great-grandfather Kamel Tabbara opened the family’s first falafel shop in the city’s Bab Idriss district, before the state of Greater Lebanon was established after World War I. Kamel passed the business to his son Ahmad, and since 1950 it has been mostly run by Mohammed, Kamel’s grandson.

Mohammed said the family moved from central Beirut at around that time, and the current shop in a narrow street has been in place since 1979.

Describing the span of conflicts he has lived through, Mohammed said, “I have been through 40 wars,” referring to two civil wars, Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, multiple Israel–Hezbollah wars and several conflicts involving Palestinian groups and the Syrian army.

He began working at the shop at age 6 and still mans the counter, with many long-time customers visiting for decades; Jean Matta, 60, said he has been eating falafel there since 1992 and described it as “crunchy, tasty and clean.”

The shop’s recipe uses Australian fava beans, soaked the night before and ground before mixing with salt and spices including coriander. Mohammed said chickpeas are heavier and take more time to digest than fava beans alone, and he also said he was the first in Lebanon to introduce a falafel patty covered with sesame seeds and with a hole in the middle so it would be well-cooked inside and crunchy on the outside.

Mohammed said, “The sandwich you take from here is light and 100% healthy,” while preparing sandwiches as his son dropped falafel patties into a frying pot. He added that the shop changes its cooking oil every day and washes vegetables with vinegar and salt.