Love for food & family leads Ghada Have It owner to share his craft with others

Town of Niagara restaurant welcomes all

By Joshua Maloni

GM/Managing Editor

Mom, grandma and wrestling, of all things, led Bashar Srouji to open Ghada Have It, a Mediterranean restaurant on Military Road in the Town of Niagara.

The former Lewiston-Porter High School standout grappler said, “Wrestling is something that carries a lot of weight for me. The name of the restaurant, Ghada (for his mother), is a lot more than just her recipes and great food. It's a symbol of the sacrifices that she made for us to have the life that we were able to have, and opportunities we're able to have – one of them was wrestling for me.

“Growing up with a humble childhood – and our childhood wasn't exactly picture-perfect – we had a lot of adversities, but wrestling was a huge outlet for me. It allowed me to take anything that was going on in my life and take it out on the mat. And that's why I'm proud to say that I am the owner of the Lew-Port Youth Wrestling Club, the same club that taught me a lot of what it takes to become a man, to pass that on to future generation of kids.

“On top of that, another thing that brought me joy was, you finished wrestling practice, you come home, and it's my mother and my grandmother in the kitchen, rolling grape leaves or cooking something. Always brought family to the house; always brought people together – was food. So, those are the two most important things in my life, on top of family, and that's what my business is based on, is being resilient, being mentally tough, family, and good food and make a memory.”

Srouji didn’t immediately expect to become a restaurateur – in fact, he was working in insurance after his schooling – but “it was something I was always passionate about – and I come from a family that is built on entrepreneurship. My brother – an entrepreneur. My godfather – entrepreneur. A lot of my cousins are entrepreneurs. My uncles, same thing. It was, if you find something that you're passionate about and you love, figure out a way to make it come to life – and live the life you want to live. I've always had that mind set.

“I'll be honest with you: Food has always brought a lot of happiness to me. You know, cooking, what I said before, bringing people together, and I've always been good at it, because I'd get compliments. Being in the kitchen, with my mom and my grandmother, (other people would) say, ‘Who made this?’ They’d say it was me. And they’d say, ‘Wow, we couldn't even tell the difference.’ So, it was always something that gave me confidence.”

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 When COVID hit, Srouji considered getting a food trailer. However, he learned such an enterprise requires a commissary kitchen. “And in 2020, nobody was keeping their kitchens open. Everything was closing because of the pandemic,” he said.

Srouji was presented an opportunity to take over a space on Saunders Settlement Road that had served typical Western New York fare, including pizza and wings. He paired that with his own Mediterranean dishes and quickly found success.

Unfortunately, “with the storm that happened in July of ’21 – it was a storm of 100 years – we got flooded,” Srouji said. “We were the lowest point of the entire street in the parking lot of Dave's Last Chance. We had about 15 to 18 inches of water that pummeled in through the front door – literally through the front door – and destroyed our cooking equipment. Destroyed the dining room. It destroyed everything. So, we were forced to have to shut down only a short nine, very successful months of being in business and testing the concept.

“But that small run gave us enough confidence, and enough proof, that we have something here; that the product that we've produced, the way that we put it together, is something that people want.”

Ghada Have It would relocate to its current site, at 2117 Military Road.

Today, the restaurant excels at providing what Srouji called a diverse menu.

Part of it “is Palestinian cuisine at its best, because we're full-blooded Palestinian Christians from Nazareth,” he said. “It's beef kabob, it's falafel, it's seven-spice chicken marinated in homemade yogurt. … The falafel and the hummus and the baba ghanoush and the labneh, all that stuff really came from our part of the world. So, just growing up on it, it's not something I ever really saw out there. And when I did see it out there, I know how excited it made me. So, that's kind of what stayed in my head.”

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He noted, “If you look at our menu, you'll notice you can get those core four proteins (including gyro) in a volume of different options. You can get it in a rice bowl, a salad, a pita wrap, a platter and an Indian taco or on a pizza.”

Then, part of the menu includes hearty pizzas, large chicken wings, chicken fingers, pizza logs and fries.

Managing a large menu, Srouji said, “all comes down to our processes behind the scenes, the way that we prep the food. Honestly, the love and the passion that goes behind it. So, if you come in and you order something as simple as, ‘I just want a cheeseburger,’ well, when you come to Ghada Have It, you're not just going to get a cheeseburger. You're going to get a freshly ground sirloin tip, prime rib and prime rib fat that we grind in the back, hand-pressed into a burger, on a nice, toasted Costanzo’s bun.

“Anything that we do, growing up the way we grew up, we take a lot of pride in homemade; we take a lot of pride in doing things from scratch. That's why we make our yogurt from scratch, that we make the tzatziki in, and that we marinate our chicken in. We do all of these things because we know, 1) how bad the world has gotten in regards to ultra-processed foods. You know, growing up this way with real whole foods has taught me the value in that, and now I'm able to instill that in my kids. And 2), it's just, everything tastes better, feels better. You feel better even talking about it.”

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Speaking of all the feels, Srouji noted a special kitchen connection to his late grandmother, Wajiha.

“She meant a lot to me, and she's definitely one of the big driving factors behind this, too,” he said. “When I cook, you know, it's funny: I have a tattoo of my grandmother on my left forearm, and the falafler that I use when I drop falafel is hers, and I drop it with my left hand. So, that brings me a little joy. When I'm cooking, I'm cooking her ingredients. To know that I'm still using her tools that she has given me that are over 60-70 years old – there's a lot of love and sentiment.”