Jaffa Mediterranean Grill owners Tareq Zayed, right, and Mohammad Asrawi, center right, and staff opened their new Falmouth location on Sept. 1. Contributed / Liam LaFountain

You could say the story of Jaffa Mediterranean Grill, which opened a new location on Route 1 in Falmouth early this month, began at the Maine Mall in South Portland. That’s where founders Tareq Zayed and Mohammad Asrawi set up the first iteration of the now popular eatery in 2020.

But the real story goes back further, to Jordan – where both men grew up – and to Palestine, where both of their families are originally from.

“Palestinians, you’ll find us in many countries, and we always try to make it feel like home,” said Zayed in an interview the other week. Providing good food for his chosen community is his way of giving back to Maine, the state he’s called home for six years.

The new Jaffa Mediterranean Grill location is now open at the Shops at Falmouth Square, a new commercial and residential development in Falmouth’s main shopping center, and it’s already turning heads. Customers lined up around to get lunch at a long counter. Jaffa serves customizable bowls and pitas in a style similar to elevated fast casual restaurants like Sweetgreen.

Vickie Ducharme of Falmouth had stopped by Jaffa before an appointment, and said she was pleased with her chicken shawarma bowl and would definitely be returning.

Speaking of Falmouth’s food scene “we’re good on the pizza and the subs,” she said. “This is a nice change of pace.”

Customers can get premade bowls or pita wraps with a base of falafel, chicken, gyro meat or lamb. You can also build your own bowl or pita from scratch and pick from add-ons like harissa, herb tahini, garlic sauce, tzatziki, olives, tomato and cucumber, and various pickles.

They also serve salads and dips like eggplant baba ganoush and hummus. Their dishes are also all halal, according to their Instagram.

Back in 2018, when Zayed first arrived in Maine, his days looked very different. He had come to Old Orchard Beach as part of a work and travel exchange program that was available to foreign college students. He spent the summer doing maintenance work at a local hotel and met his future wife. He decided to stay.

Jaffa’s new location is already bustling. The menu features customizable pitas and bowls. Eloise Goldsmith / The Forecaster

Zayed and Asrawi became friends serendipitously. Zayed was biking home one night in Old Orchard Beach when he passed by Asrawi, who was with some other friends. Zayed heard Asrawi call out something in Arabic.

“I heard it and I said ‘Whoa, that sounds familiar.’ So I turned (and rode back) and I said ‘Hi, I’m Tareq. Where are you from?’” The two realized they were both from Jordan with Palestinian roots.

Zayed’s family is originally from Jenin in the West Bank and part of Asrawi’s father’s family is from Jenin and his mother’s family is from Gaza, Zayed said.

Zayed said his paternal grandmother fled to Jordan during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War when she was pregnant with his father, and after spending time in refugee camps in Jordan the family settled permanently in the city of Zarqa. Some 700,000 other Palestinians were also displaced as a result of the war, according to the United Nations, in an episode that’s referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba, or “catastrophe” in Arabic.

In Jordan, Zayed studied business administration and software engineering at Hashemite University and Asrawi studied civil engineering at the University of Jordan.

In Maine, the two missed the food they ate growing up in Jordan. “When we tried the local places, there was not much around us that satisfied that need,” said Zayed.

When Asrawi and Zayed learned that a small spot in the mall’s food court was looking for a lease takeover in 2020, they decided to go in on it. Without much cooking experience, but a decent amount of business savvy, they set up shop offering bowls and pitas, similar to what they offer now.

“When it came to cooking, we learned from the best – our moms,” he said. “I know I’m biased probably because it’s my mom … but seriously.”

In 2022, they moved into the larger space they currently inhabit at the Maine Mall and changed their name to Jaffa Mediterranean Grill. The Falmouth location is the business’s first expansion.

President and CEO of Compass Commercial Brokers Steve Baumann, who is both an owner of the Shops at Falmouth Square, a part of the development team for the property and in charge of the brokerage handling the building, said he’s excited to have Jaffa Mediterranean Grill as one of the tenants.

“My first impression when I went into the restaurant was (the) operational logistics of how they ran their business. And it was impressive,” said Baumann. “And then on top of it you try their product.”

Baumann said his son, Jack Baumann, who also works for Compass Commercial Brokers as a sales agent, first contacted Jaffa Mediterranean Grill via cold call to see if they would be interested in leasing a space because he loved their food. “We realized that they would be a great fit for the Falmouth market place,” said Steve Baumann.

Zayed said it is not the easiest time for him to be running a growing business.

In October 2023, following an attack on Israel by Hamas during which some 1,200 people – mostly civilians – were killed and about 250 were taken hostage, Israel commenced a fierce military campaign on the Gaza strip. The war has killed over 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, which is run by Hamas, according to local health officials there.

“It’s really hard to focus on what you want to do in life when you wake up seeing dead children every day,” he said, speaking about updates he gets from the news or social media. “And then (say) ‘let me move that away, let me put my phone down and start working.’” He said it’s not easy to put a smile on his face for work.

But he does smile when talking about his business. Jaffa Mediterranean Grill is named after the old, historically cosmopolitan port city Jaffa, famous for its oranges, which sits on the Mediterranean Sea and is adjacent to Tel Aviv. Because of their mutual connection to the sea, “the people of Jaffa have so much in common with the people of Maine,” said Zayed.