Stockyards get taste of Lebanese dining

Picture by Glen E. Ellman.  Marios nd Joseph Hedary's new  Lebanese restaurant is a bold attempt at diversity in an area dominated by Hispanic, blue-collar, African-American and cowboy cultures.

Article by Worth Wren Jr.

Quote:" The more business, the better, especially for this little block." Alex Gallegos Jr..

Paper: Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Title: Stockyards get taste of Lebanese dining

Hedary sons' new eatery serves jalapenos on side

Date: August 3, 1992

Food Industry

    FORT WORTH - Two of Antoine Hedary's nine offspring have gone out on their own to create a Lebanese dining experience on the north side.Joseph and Marios Hedary have opened Byblos Lebanese Restaurant in the heart of jalapenos, fajitas and steak and potatoes grazing territory between the Stockyards and downtown.

    But the Hedary brothers' venture - pursued independently of their parents' business - is a bold move for new diversity in an old area dominated by Hispanic, blue-collar, African-American and cowboy cultures.

    "It's a healthy sign for the area," said Jerome Mosman, executive director of the Fort Worth Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "I think they will be successful. . . . Hispanics, they like other foods. They're not limited to tacos."

    But just in case the neighbors don't think the brothers' rather spicy Lebanese cuisine is hot enough, Joseph and Marios are offering a side dish of jalapenos for topping the tabbouleh, falafel, shawarma and other traditional Lebanese dishes on the long menu.

    Both brothers cook at the restaurant, which opened July 14 and now has three waitresses.

    Byblos, 1406 N. Main St., is next door to the popular El Rancho Grande Restaurante, on the same block as the 33-year-old Los Alamos Cafe and not far from the critically acclaimed La Playa seafood restaurant on Central Avenue.

    The brothers did everything from renovating their 90-year-old building and designing their restaurant to rebuilding floors and buying, refurbishing and installing fixtures and mostly used equipment.

    Joseph Hedary, 32, designed and built the half-wall of brick separating the diners from the open-view kitchen and the brick oven in which the brothers bake their from-scratch pita bread.

    Byblos, BEE-bluhs in the dictionary pronunciation,  is the Lebanese name of an ancient Phoenician seaport, its Mediterranean coastal ruins and a modern community near Beirut.

    But the restaurant's name, a common one for Lebanese firms in America, is pronounced BEE-blose.

    The brothers expect to draw diners from the tens of thousands of tourists who visit the Stockyards  every year, the downtown lunch crowd, the area's Lebanese cuisine lovers who don't want to drive to the Camp Bowie Boulevard site of Hedary's Lebanese Restaurant and even the more stubborn neighbors.

    But Byblos is much more than a new place to eat.

    Through no deliberate design, it has become a symbol of the area's potential for economic rebirth outside the immediate Stockyards neighborhood.