Algerian born Tony Kitous’ relationship with food began very early on – a relationship which, 26 years later, has led to him nurturing and channeling his passion into four restaurant concepts, comprising 30 outlets throughout the UK, the country he originally traveled to for vacation, before deciding to take up residency there. His fifth concept, Shawa, is a Lebanese-style grill, which has three outlets to date. Commenting on this latest offering, Kitous said, “For reasons that remain a mystery to me, I have always harbored an affinity with shawarma and make it a point to try new restaurants offering the dish wherever I happen to find myself in the world.”
Kitous explained that the challenge when introducing the dish was to strip it down to its original form and present it in the way that shawarma is served in Lebanon. “We employed this approach for two main reasons – first to highlight that all the ingredients going into our shawarma are not only fresh, but also very healthy, and second, to make it as accessible as possible to all who care to try it,” he said. “We hope to see the dish become an everyday meal as popular throughout the world as the burger.”
To help achieve these aims, the three outlets were carefully selected to ensure that people from all walks of life have access to the shawarma and can easily afford it. Kitous also pointed out that most other restaurants offering the shawarma cater to consumers of a specific nationality. “We, however, do away with these specifications, preferring to make the dish friendlier for all types of palates, irrespective of where a customer comes from,” he noted. “In the coming year, I hope to raise as much awareness as I possibly can about Shawa, before expanding internationally.”
