Not just falafel, it's time for a bite of 'shawurger'

JF Street Food ((previously known as Just Falafel) is introducing ‘shawurger’, a combination of the traditional shawarma, from the East and burger from the West.

Reema Shetty, partner at JF Street Food, told ‘Emirates24|7’, that they are all set to open new outlets in Egypt and USA and is looking to appoint CEO for the US market. “We will be opening two more outlets in the USA and a new CEO will be appointed in each country where we are present. The next two years our focus is going to be the UAE and US markets. Our Egyptian outlets are also doing well with plans completed to open two new restaurants this month.”

“We had to take a hard decision to close the five outlets in Lebanon. We will also go to the Indian market after sometime,” said Shetty.

“We have five operational branches in the US. We will be opening two more outlets there. We are present in Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt. By July 2015, we will have 42 operational restaurants of JF Street Foods all over the world,” she said.

Initially the company was in a franchise signing spree, but for the next two years, no new franchises of JF Street Foods will be signed, as our priority is to have our own branded restaurant outlets, she added. “We don’t have any joint venture partner in the USA and our focus is to open our company-owned franchises in the USA.”

“We have a Lebanese, American and Irish Chefs and more than 50 varieties of shawarmas, falafel and other products, and we keep introducing limited time offers of new versions. The young expatriates and Emiratis, who do not want to eat junk food are the main customers in our outlets. Our meat does not contain hormones and we offer three types of proteins, vegetable, chicken and beef,” she said. “Part of the sales goes to UN Food Programme. Similarly one per cent of our employees’ salary is contributed to the UN Food programme,” she said.

Chicken shawurger is served in a soft potato bun, a bed of lettuce, tomatoes, onion, pickles, French fries and drizzled with garlic mayo sauce. Beef includes sumac onion mix, pickles, tomatoes and JF’s special Tahina sauce in potato bun. Shawurger will be exclusively available at Dubai Marina branch, until June 15, 2015.

 “At JF Street Food, we are always looking at ways to re-define street food for the local UAE residents and visitors,” said Mohamad Bitar, Founder and Managing Director, JF Street Food. “Introducing the iconic shawarma concept into our menu offers a perfect balance of tradition and innovation to tempt diners.”

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