OSU doctoral student helps expand Columbus' Middle Eastern food options

Ibrahim Almahaireh wished for two things after settling in Columbus to pursue his doctoral degree at Ohio State University.

He missed the food of his native Jordan and the Middle East, and he really needed an all-night coffee house where he could caffeinate and study at the same time.

So he opened both.

The 27-year-old who despises down time already had founded a Jordanian student group and was volunteering as a swim coach at OSU. For two years, he commuted regularly back and forth to Toledo to work as a charter-school physical education teacher.

Now, Almahaireh is also at the forefront of a wave of new Middle Eastern restaurants and coffee houses that have opened around Columbus over the past year. He's an owner or partner in eight local franchises of national and international chains that have attracted both existing and new fans of Yemeni coffee, Dubai chocolate, Palestinian flatbreads, Lebanese grilled chicken and more.

"When I go to a restaurant, I really like it to be the same taste as back home," he said. "Authentic restaurants prevent our cultures from disappearing."

The first Farooj Abo Al Abed restaurant in the United States opened in September in Dublin.

What are Ibrahim Almahaireh's Columbus restaurants?

Seven of Almahaireh's eight franchises have opened just this year:

• Juice Time: The Kuwaiti chain with more than 200 locations worldwide opened shops in Hilliard in April, Dublin in October and Easton Town Center on Dec. 15. Juice Time sells fresh juices, milkshakes and other drinks, as well as fruit-shaped, mousse-filled desserts.
• Papa Kanafa: Inside Juice Time's Dublin shop, Papa Kanafa sells pie-sized or larger versions of kanafa, a dessert popular across the Middle East that is a melty, salty cheese covered in a soft semolina pasty and soaked in sweet syrup.
• Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co.: A Lewis Center location for the Dearborn, Michigan, coffee, tea and dessert chain was Almahaireh's first venture, opened in March 2024. A second Qamaria coffee house in Dublin, which opened in February, is open 24 hours.
• Al Manakeesh: The suburban Chicago restaurant that serves sandwiches and the dish it's named after, a pizza-like dough topped with everything from falafel and tahini sauce to Nutella and M&Ms, opened its second location in March in Dublin.
• Farooj Abo Al Abed: The 139-restaurant chain owned by the same Kuwaiti company as Juice Time opened its first U.S. restaurant in September in Dublin. Farooj Abo Al Abed specializes in charcoal-grilled chicken.

With an eye for Instagrammable menu additions and a social media game that's on point – his five brands have more local Instagram followers than Cameron Mitchell's 23 central Ohio restaurants – openings of Almahaireh's new spots have drawn crowds he estimates at up to 2,000 people. Of course, free food at the events helps, too.

Not giving up on his first career

Although he still plans to pursue a career in his field of kinesiology, the study of human movement, Almahaireh said he had had business ownership on his mind for a long time as well. He pursued a Qamaria franchise after becoming a fan of its first central Ohio location in Hilliard. He looked into the Farooj franchise after eating at one of its restaurants in Jordan. He reached out to Al Manakeesh after trying its food while visiting Chicago for a wedding.

"It’s more enjoyable when it’s something you really like," Almahaireh said.

He discovered also that more than the food is familiar in his business career. The research and analytical skills he has called on for tasks such as site selection, permit wrangling and construction oversight are the same ones required in academia.

"I believe in my mind I have the right skills to run anything. Just give me time to learn it. I make a lot of mistakes, but I learn from them. On an hourly basis, I learn."

Online fans of the businesses have been campaigning to nominate Almahaireh for the Dublin Chamber of Commerce annual Businessperson of the Year award.

Abo Al Abed Bucket at Farooj Abo Al Abed, which opened in September in Dublin.

Finding new fans of Middle Eastern food

When he and his partners chose Lewis Center for their first venture in 2024, Almahaireh said, they were told the unincorporated area in Delaware County was a bad choice. The Qamaria coffee house on Old State Road is 13 miles north of Ohio State's student population and outside the loop of thoroughfares around Polaris-area shopping and dining.

Data told the franchise owners otherwise.

"Columbus is big," Almahaireh said. "You can be everywhere."

You can appeal to everyone, too, he said.

Ahead of the Dec. 18 broadcast of a soccer match between Jordan and Morocco in the finals of the Arab Cup tournament, Qamaria Yemeni Coffee Co. in Lewis Center is set up for a crowd. Meanwhile, regular Aaron Wallace waits for his order.

On the morning of Dec. 18, about 500 chairs were set up before two big-screen TVs at Qamaria for soccer fans anticipating that day's FIFA Arab Cup final match between Jordan and Morocco. Hours before they gathered, Aaron Wallace stopped for his morning brew and a slice of honeycomb cake, which tastes like a Middle Eastern version of a cheese Danish.

"I'm not a Starbucks guy," said Wallace, who likes the cardamom that's ground with the beans for traditional Arabic coffees. He gets it often during his commute from Marengo to Columbus. "I think I was here on the first day."

Ahmed Salek makes a sandwich at Farooj Abo Al Abed in Dublin.

'My goal is to reach all of the people'

For Almahaireh, comparisons to foods more familiar to new customers are necessary, even though the versions from his culture are usually much older. He'll describe manakeesh as "Mediterranean pizza," for instance, even though it outdates the Italian version by at least six centuries.

While acknowledging that members of local Middle Eastern and Muslim communities are his customer base because all the food is halal, which means it's prepared following Islamic law, Almahaireh said he's aiming for a much broader audience. Columbus is a historic test market, he pointed out, and people here are used to trying new things.

"Without support of other communities, there’s no way for us to be successful," he said. "My goal is to reach all of the people."