Lebanese restaurant Manakeesh closes its West Philly location

After 15 years in its West Philadelphia location, Manakeesh Cafe Bakery & Grill has built a loyal customer base, general manager Adam Chatila said.

But when the Lebanese restaurant announced it was closing its location at Walnut and 45th Streets, Chatila did not anticipate the outpouring of support on social media.

Longtime customers asked what they could do to support the business.

“You have been such a pillar of our community and neighborhood,” one typical commenter wrote on Instagram. “Is there anything we can do to help? We love you guys.”

“I was really touched by that,” Chatila said.

While the location is closing, the business isn’t. Manakeesh will continue online with a smaller menu, as the owners scout out a new location.

Chatila said the closing was not by choice – the business was leasing its space, and the rent had become too high.

While Manakeesh wasn’t the first restaurant offering this cuisine in the area — Saad’s Halal Restaurant is across the street — it introduced the community to a wider range of options for breakfast and lunch, with its namesake manakeesh flatbreads being a customer favorite.

“It’s a social hub, you know, they would come and have their meetings and dates and … to come hang out," Chatila said. “Manakeesh is kind of like a Lebanese Panera.”

» READ MORE: Manakeesh’s exclusive Ramadan dessert are fried stuffed pancakes

He said that while it’s had its ups and downs, business has largely been consistent in recent years. Customers kept coming back for staples, like hummus and baklava, as well as specialties like chicken tawook kabob, which is grilled in front of patrons.

“We really put our heart into our dishes; we’re not just, you know, taking something that someone else prepared for the most part and just like repackaging it and selling it. We make our dough from scratch. We get a lot of our Lebanese ingredients imported from Lebanon, like the za’atar,” he said.

Chatila said the business is looking for a space in the same neighborhood, though it may not be as elegant as the former bank building that has been its home since his father, owner Wissam Chatila, opened the restaurant in January 2011. Adam Chatila described what they’re hoping for:

“Something similar, maybe a slightly smaller scale operation but it gives off the same effect of, you walk in and you feel like you’re in a different country, in the Lebanese country,” he said.

While Manakeesh will become a “cloud kitchen” in the short term, Chatila said, it will continue to deliver out of a physical location — the family’s other restaurant, Toomi’s Shawarma, a fast-food-style place in Upper Darby. It won’t have the entire menu, Chatila said, but it will have many of the most popular dishes.

» READ MORE: Toomi’s Shawarma

Chatila said the restaurant has relied on many of its staff members for years, including one since the day it opened.

“We treat them like a family, so we’re going to do our best to try to retain the workforce,” he said. “We’re going to see how things go the first month, and try to accommodate for them, and hopefully we’ll be able to make it work.”

Chatila said he teared up at the decision to close the location.

“And then to notice (on social media) that they also had that feeling: It makes us feel like we were not just a restaurant. We are community members.”

The closing on Sunday, marked by a party, comes just ahead of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting and prayer, and a special time of year for Manakeesh, which would open at sunset to serve many customers when they break their fast with special Ramadan dishes.

That tradition will continue online, for now.