Baladi News
A new restaurant operated by a family that fled Syria's civil war is opening Friday evening on Milwaukee's south side in the United States.
Damascus Gate Restaurant, is operated by Riham Silan and Abdul Abadeh.
The couple, and their three young children, immigrated to Milwaukee in fall 2017 after spending three years living in a Jordanian refugee camp.
Ahmad Nasef, a Milwaukee doctor who grew up in Syria and knew Silan's family, helped them resettle.
Silan cooked food for Nasef to thank him. Word soon spread among other area Syrian-American families about Silan's talent — honed by years of working at her family's Damascus restaurant.
Now, she and her husband, Abadeh, are opening their own restaurant.
"She's very happy," said Nasef, who served as an interpreter for Silan.
"She thanks God for this dream that's happening."
Damascus Gate's menu features Syrian items such as hummus, falafel, kefta kabab and muhalaya.
It also includes pizzas — in part because the restaurant space that the couple and Nasef found has a pizza oven.
"They want American customers," Nasef said. "They want to make sure they're inclusive of everyone."
Besides, people who order pizza also might sample some of the Syrian items, he said.
Silan and Abadeh, and their children, arrived in the U.S. in September 2017.
That was during a period in which President Donald Trump's executive orders banning travelers from Syria and six other majority-Muslim nations had been struck down by various federal judges.
In December 2017, the Supreme Court allowed the latest version to take effect while the justices reviewed it. The court upheld that travel ban in a June ruling.
Source: Journal Sentinel.