Today we’d like to introduce you to Bashar Dumar.
Bashar, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I moved to Brooklyn, New York from Syria when I was 18 years old. When I moved here, I knew no one. I hardly spoke English and I needed to find a job. Knowing a thing or two about jewelry, I applied for a job at a local jewelry store. After a few years I eventually saved up enough and opened my own store. One store turned into two, then three and next thing I know, over 30 years had gone by. I had started a family, made friends and established my business. It was my home, but there were problems. Due to the occupational hazards and dangers of owning a business that dealt with precious stones and elements (robberies, thefts, etc.), I decided it was no longer safe to continue raising a family. I moved to Sugar Land, Texas as a result of this. Instead of continuing to pursue a business in jewelry, I opened a Mediterranean restaurant. I wanted to bring a taste of my cultural cuisine to the neighborhood. Today, I’ve had this business for 12 years and we’re still going strong.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. Opening up a restaurant is no easy task.
Especially in the first few years and for someone who’s never done it before. You have to develop a solid customer base, acclimate to have to constantly look for new ways to attract new customers, find a dependable staff. This, however, didn’t get me down because it’s nothing I hadn’t been through already.
Please tell us about Dumar’s Mediterranean Grill.
I own a family-style Mediterranean restaurant. We make food based of the cuisine I grew up with in Damascus, Syria. Everything is homemade and based off our own family recipes. We are most known for our Gyro Wraps as well as our Chicken Shawarmas. I am proud of how we were able to bring what has been called New York style deli/hole-in-the-wall that features Mediterranean food with our recipes and establish ourselves in an area completely new to us. I am most proud of the customer-base we’ve managed to build.
What makes us different from other places is our customers. We have a very large “regular” customer-base and we are familiar with each and every one of them. We treat each other like family. We know their orders by heart. These are people that have been coming here for the better part of a decade.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Honestly, nothing really. Or at least nothing major. Maybe small things like what equipment I started out with. Things like that.
Contact Info:
- Address: 4518 Highway 6 South
- Website: dumarsgrill.com
- Phone: 2813131893
- Email: dumarmed@yahoo.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dumars-Mediterranean-Grill-100883766622580/
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