None of it was anticipated, said international attorney, successful restaurateur and published poet-author Ibrahim AlNashashibi.
\n“I never thought I would be having a restaurant,” said the affable, soulful AlNashashibi, who\u2019s owned Fairouz Cafe & Gallery at 3166 Midway Drive, Suite 102,\u00a0 since 1984. “Everything I planned for \u2014 didn\u2019t work. And all the good things that happened to me: I never planned.”
\nSurrounded by his evocative, stylized paintings, the Jerusalem-born\u00a0
\nAlNashashibi reminisced about life\u2019s unsuspected twists and turns that culminated in creation of his Mediterranean buffet-style restaurant.
\nThe restaurateur said the Midway strip mall he\u2019s been in for 36 years is unrecognizable now. “We were the second tenant in after Godfather\u2019s Pizza,” he said. “Now we\u2019re the only ones left.”
\nNamed for a famous Lebanese singer AlNashishibi admires, Fairouz means breathtaking turquoise stone in Arabic. Open for lunch and dinner, the restaurant offers 40-plus international-cuisine options including Greek, Lebanese, Spanish, French and Italian fare.
\n“We have falafel, tabouli, hummus, baba ganoush, lamb, beef and chicken gyros and stuffed grape leaves,” said the restaurateur. “We also have lots of vegetarian items. We have very good reviews on Yelp.”
\nBorn in the old city of Jerusalem in 1950, AlNashashibi\u2019s family\u2019s roots date back centuries and include poets, writers and politicians \u2014 even one religious leader, Ibrahim\u2019s great-grandfather prince Nasser Aldeen AlNashashibi.
\nThough steeped in the Middle East, AlNashashibi always wanted to be an American. He particularly admired U.S. President Abraham Lincoln growing up.
\n“I loved him,” he said, noting he shares Lincoln\u2019s first name in Arabic.
\nAsked why he was so impressed by Lincoln, AlNashashibi replied, “For his family values, freeing the slaves, equality, justice and freedom \u2014 those things weren\u2019t available for me then.”
\nEarly on, AlNashashibi studied medicine overseas but found it wasn\u2019t for him. He earned his law degree in 1972 in Beirut, then practiced law in the Gulf until 1986, before marrying and coming to San Diego.
\n“I fell in love with San Diego,” said AlNashashibi describing it as “a very spiritual city that feels like Jerusalem.” He added, “The beauty of being an American is that we all bring from our past good things.”
\nAlNashashibi started Fairouz with his brother-in-law, but the business struggled until finding its niche.\u00a0
\n“We wanted to serve home-cooked, Mediterranean recipes that are good for you,” AlNashashibi said. “So I brought my mom\u2019s recipes.”
\nAlNashashibi knew he could paint since he was 5 years old, but didn\u2019t try it until he was depressed following a divorce. He turned to painting for therapy after a dream.\u00a0
\n“In my dream I looked through a window at a field of flowers with colors I\u2019d never seen,” he said. “I recognized that I\u2019d always seen life in black and white, never in color.”
\nThe next day, AlNashashibi started painting. “Six months later, I had my first exhibit here, and that night I sold $17,500 worth of art,” he said, adding, “I paint to discover the real values of life.”
\nAlNashashibi shows his own work as well as other local artists in his restaurant\/art gallery.
\nAlNashashibi had a similar experience with writing. After his second wife died of cancer, he penned a poetry book, “Written With Colors Drawn With Words,” memorializing her. That was therapeutic for him too.
\nDuring the last nine years, he\u2019s written another poetry book and a novel titled “Love Is All You Need,” loosely based on his life experiences.
\n“I got inspired with the novel when my wife was still in a coma,” AlNashashibi said. “I thought, \u2018What positive could come from this disaster?\u2019 The next day, the idea for the book came to me. I took her hand and said, \u2018Thank you. You just gave birth to my first novel.\u2019”
\nThese days, AlNashashibi said his writing and poetry, to some extent, are taking him away from his painting.
\nFairouz, for AlNashashibi, is much more than a restaurant. And his patrons are more than just customers.
\n“I have tons of grandchildren, brothers and sisters \u2014 this is how it feels,” he said.
\nSummarizing the long and meandering path that\u2019s led him to San Diego and Fairouz, AlNashashibi concluded, “It is a beautiful life, what can I tell you?” Fairouz Cafe & Gallery
\n3166 Midway Drive, Suite 102
\nHours: Mondays through Thursdays 11a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sundays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
\n619-225-0308<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
None of it was anticipated, said international attorney, successful restaurateur and published poet-author Ibrahim AlNashashibi. “I never thought I would be having a restaurant,” said the affable, soulful AlNashashibi, who\u2019s owned Fairouz Cafe & Gallery at 3166 Midway Drive, Suite 102,\u00a0 since 1984. “Everything I planned for \u2014 didn\u2019t work. And all the good things […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":266861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Top notch international cuisine and art at Fairouz Cafe & Gallery","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11600],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-sdnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}