Meet Kassem Fardoun, Effusive Midtown Booster From Dearborn

posted on: Jun 11, 2015

By night, Fordson High grad Kassem Fardoun lives in a West Dearborn loft. By day, he oversees the Midtown Detroit restaurant he opened early this year — the city’s first branch of Falafill, a five-year-old group based in Chicago.

The 35-year-old entrepreneur is a one-man pep rally for his adopted city, judging from an interview with Metro Times managing editor Michael Jackman.

“I believe in the city,” the young Lebanese-American says. “I mean, Detroit is the place to be right now. Honestly, let’s be real. . . . Detroit is the most hopping place right now in Michigan.”

Fardoun spent more than a year building the space out, and opened just in time for the M1 construction to wipe out his parking.

Now he and several other neighboring businesses are gutting it out, waiting for the construction to move to the other side of the street.

“It’s been a big problem. I mean, the foot traffic is amazing, it’s just that I have so many people who call and say, ‘We tried to find parking but we couldn’t. We’ll come back some other time.’ But we’re hanging in there.

“Two years from now, this city’s going to be unreal. That’s why I’m here.”

He opens daily except Sunday, and plans sidewalk seating when the rail construction moves on.

The fast-serve restaurant with 20 seats is at 4206 Woodward Ave., just south of the Whitney Restaurant. It features East Mediterranean-style bowls, wraps and pita pockets filled with choices of falafel (curry or traditional), steak, turkey, chicken or spicy sausage (sujuk).

Fardoun is a former owner of Crazy’s Pizza in Dearborn Heights and Westland, according to dBusiness, where writer Izzi Bendall Joseph adds:

He plans to open two additional storefronts by the end of 2016. One will likely be in Troy or Ann Arbor, with the other headed for Campus Martius in downtown Detroit.

“I own all of the rights for Michigan, and I’m planning on franchising just about everywhere in Michigan,” he says.

Jackman praises the falafel sandwich, :”wrapped like a generous burrito,” and admires the “bright, clean, attractive space with walls of white tile . . . [and] a wildly colorful collage featuring a huge image of a lively Beirut street scene.”

— Alan Stamm

Source: www.deadlinedetroit.com