Dishdash: A taste and sight of the Middle East
Then Emad Ibrahim and wife Nadiah Mshasha opened Dishdash in 2001 on Sunnyvale’s historic South Murphy Avenue, they had plenty of experience in the Middle Eastern / Mediterranean restaurant business. What they didn’t have was lots of dining space and plenty of employees.
Since then, the Palestinian immigrants have a lot more of both. Once a place with just 11 employees and one small room in which to serve their fine cuisine, they now have more than 70 workers and two more dining rooms. That doesn’t even count their opening a grill in Milpitas as well as three fast casual outlets (Dish n’ Dash) in Sunnyvale, San Jose and Fremont.
That kind of success doesn’t just happen. It comes from consistently serving up quality fare (locally sourced and sustainably raised whenever possible) with great service — and responding to customers’ ever-changing dietary needs and culinary trends, says Nadiah.
In the Sunnyvale Dishdash, the decor is comprised of black-and-white Middle Eastern photos, embroideries and artifacts hanging on the walls and embedded in the tabletops. The just-so lighting and the architectural touches complete the sense of transporting diners to Jerusalem or Beirut — not glitzy, but elegant and homey.
“The decor is special,” Nadiah says, “because we are from the Middle East, we are Palestinian. Many of the artifacts came from home, or we picked them up when we traveled to the Middle East.”
Downtown dining destination
Going into the food business wasn’t such a big leap for Emad and Nadiah. First off, Emad was raised by a mother who passed her extraordinary cooking skills to her sons. To put himself through business school, Emad worked in his brother’s Middle Eastern eatery in San Francisco’s Noe Valley as a waiter and in other capacities. Nadiah also worked there.
But the couple lived in Sunnyvale, as they do now, and after Emad graduated, the long commute to San Francisco just became too much. Armed with his business degree and an extensive background in the restaurant industry, Emad started poking around the South Bay for a place to launch their own restaurant, they found it in their own Sunnyvale downtown.
As Sunnyvale residents, downtown Sunnyvale looked good for a couple of reasons: the proximity to their home, and the prospect of the bustling, growing historic area’s redevelopment.
So, they took the plunge. Little did they know that the economy was about to tank. Needless to say, that made launching a new business that much more difficult. The redevelopment plan failed to get off the ground, people cut back on corporate lunches and dinners, unemployment rose.
Surviving and thriving
And yet, Dishdash came through it all and not only survived, but thrived. Emad and Nadiah are grateful that they’ve had the opportunity to employ lots of people and to nurture some of them for years, as well as to have earned customers’ respect.
“I’ll just say it’s been an adventure going through all the challenges and changes, but overall it’s great,” Nadiah says with a wry chuckle.
You’ll find Dishdash on Historic Murphy Avenue, near Washington Avenue. They are open every day but Sunday for lunch and dinner and welcome the opportunity to proudly transport you to the Middle East through their family recipes and treasures.