Crystal Wise
Qana Cafe
Qana Cafe
Qana Café, a mom-and-pop Mediterranean restaurant known for its homey, living room-like atmosphere and excellent, scratch-made food, closed Monday, the restaurant announced on Facebook.
“During these last 8 years we have been honored by your patronage, your loyalty, and your unrelenting kindness, especially during the toughest of times,” the post reads. “Thank you for choosing Qana not only for a place to have a meal, to catch a break with friends and family, but to build memories.”
Opened since 2014, in a Western Hills-area building last used as a convenience store, the restaurant had a lovable quirkiness to it. Walls were lined with bookcases jammed with paperbacks and hardbacks of all genres. Snug couches and vintage chairs invited guests to read, chill, visit and suck on hookah pipes.
In the small dining area, local foodies and next-door neighbors – the restaurant was situated in a residential area – came together to enjoy freshly made Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food.
Owner Hilal Chamseddine and her husband Joseph offered cuisine staples such as gyros, kibbeh, and baba ganoush, but also unique and hard-to-find dishes such as avocado hummus; foul mudammas, a dip made from mashed fava beans and lemon juice; sea bass shawarma; and lahm bi ajeen, a Lebanese meat pie made with ground beef, jalapenos and pomegranate.
Other menu items included baklava, a kafta-beef burger, Arabic coffee, smoothies, and assorted sandwiches.
Although a local favorite - Qana often won best restaurant awards by this and other local publications – its owners were decidedly low-key and media-shy. But the Chamseddines were big on helping those in their community. Last year, during the February freeze, the restaurant distributed and delivered free food to neighbors who had no access to food or water.
“It's been said that those who offer you their food are also offering you their heart, and that cooking is love made visible,” the restaurant’s final Facebook post reads. “We hope that you've felt this love and warmth with every meal you've shared at Qana Café.”
