Shish! Lygon Street’s favourite Middle Eastern restaurant Rumi will call time on a gilded 16-year era this winter, taking its charcoal-hued stylings and standard-bearing dips to a brand-new 80-seater in the newly constructed East Brunswick Village.
Owner and chef Joseph Abboud is looking forward to the new location – a kilometre up the road on Nicholson Street – describing it as “an opportunity for growth and to reach our potential on all levels”.
“The Lygon Street venue has been a sanctuary for so many people for so many years,” says Abboud, “but a new venue brings a fresh approach and chance to stretch creatively.”
New menu, new venue? Not necessarily – and long-time Rumi fans needn’t panic: menu mainstays like the almond tarator, sigara böreği, Persian meatballs, advieh-marinated lamb shoulder, and fried cauliflower with caramelised onions, currants and pine nuts will each earn a reprisal in their new digs. What’s more, the new restaurant will be followed by a 25-seat bar and a 100-seat events space.
It’s less new-beginning, more new-era, says co-owner Nat Abboud. “We’re updating our bricks-and-mortar venue and giving our customers and community a fresh, new space that’s familiar and comforting in all the ways Rumi is, but more gorgeous and exciting.”
We’ll dip to that.
By Frank Sweet