It has been Haytham "Tom" Khalil's dream to open a Middle Eastern restaurant.
"I wanted to have the atmosphere of our country," said Khalil, a Jordan native who opened the Sahara Middle Eastern Eatery in December. "I wanted to have our kind of music playing in the restaurant and that kind of food. That's the food we have every day when I go home. It's very tasty, and it's very healthy for the most part."
Sahara is near Central Avenue and Princeton Drive.
Khalil's family runs the Times Square Deli Mart at Central and Yale Boulevard.
"I notice lots of vegetarian people come to the deli and ask for vegetarian sandwiches," he said. "We have a bigger menu for them (at Sahara)."
His search for the right chef led him to Detroit.
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"There's a lot of Arab community there, and there's a lot of restaurants similar to the one I have," he said. "We made a deal, and he moved here. Originally, he's from Jordan - same country as me."
He said it's not just the cooking but the presentation that makes a dish desirable.
"We have an old saying that says, 'It's not your stomach that eats - it's your eye,'" he said. "When you look at the plate, and you don't like the way it looks, you're not going to eat. The presentation of the plate has a lot to do with if the business is successful or not."
He had the restaurant painted to resemble the Middle East.
"I have the belly dancers, the pyramids, the camels, the mountains, a tent and a genie," he said. "And I have Petra - it's an old city built a very long time ago in Jordan, and right now it's the new seventh wonder of the world."
He said he'll have outside seating in the warmer months.
"Now it's kind of cold," he said. "I will have a canopy for people to sit outside in the parking lot. I will make it nice."
His mother-in-law, Helen Nesheiwat, said they don't use frozen meat.
"It's all fresh - no preservatives, no frozen ones," she said. "Haytham is doing it the right way. Not the commercial way, but the real way, the Mediterranean real way."
She said a new business should open with integrity.
"You can't just open any stupid thing and just grab money from people," Nesheiwat said. "You've got to have a nice place, a nice atmosphere, because you're paying for it. You're not taking it free. You get what you pay for. And the prices are really decent."
Christopher Gibson, a Sahara patron, said he has eaten at the restaurant five times, and each time he brought a group of people.
He said he loves their jallab - a drink made from grape molasses and rosewater.
"It's the only place where you can get this," Gibson said. "You just can't find it in this state."
Sahara
Middle Eastern Eatery
2622 Central Ave. S.E.
Monday-Saturday
10:30 a.m.-9 p.m.
Sunday
Noon-7 p.m.
