New Business Update
Casablanca Kabob House
442-4883
www.casablanca-grill.com
Aziz El-Tayash closed Casablanca in Nifong Square earlier this winter and plans to open another Mediterranean restaurant with the same name in February at the northeast corner of Fifth and Elm streets.
El-Tayash, a Columbia native, said the south-side restaurant, which operated for 11 years, was “a little hidden,” and the new location in a renovated building at the edge of the University of Missouri campus is an improvement. “Downtown will get more traffic and visibility,” he said. “I’ve been looking for better business, and there’s a lot of opportunity downtown.”
The new Casablanca, located in the former location of a dry-cleaning business, is three times larger than the Nifong restaurant and features a front patio for outside seating. The family-run restaurant will continue its policy of not serving alcohol, and the menu will keep old-world favorites such as hummus, shish kabobs, Greek salads and gyros.
El-Tayash said most of his ingredients and food supplies will come from Campus Eastern Foods, a specialty market a few blocks away that is operated by his father, Youssef El-Tayash.
“It will be a getaway and provide a different healthy option for downtown, with authentic music and décor,” El-Tayash said.
La Siesta
449-8788
La Siesta, an independently owned Mexican restaurant, opened Jan. 25 on the southwest corner of Ninth and Walnut streets in the former location of the W.g Grinders sandwich shop. The owners, brothers Francisco and Benjamin Guillen, held a “soft opening” on Jan. 23, and more than 180 people attended.
Francisco Guillen also owns the El Jimador restaurant on Penn Terrace in northeast Columbia; he said he wanted to establish a restaurant that was located downtown and featured a menu of his own creation.
“If I were to open another El Jimador, I’d have to stick to the menu, and I wanted to make more options available,” Guillen said.
He also wanted to have a restaurant that would stay open past midnight. (La Siesta won’t close until 3 a.m. on weekends.)
“A lot of people wanted to have a late meal after the bars, and a lot of people were asking for it,” Guillen said. “There are always lines outside of El Rancho (on Broadway downtown), so there is room for another Mexican restaurant.”
La Siesta will be different from El Rancho, he said, because his restaurant has a full service bar and restaurant. The name La Siesta, which means “the nap,” comes from his experience at El Jimador, a franchise restaurant.
“Whenever I worked over there and I would ask people how their meal was, they would say, ‘Great, I’m ready for a nap,’ so I thought it would make a good name for the restaurant,” Guillen said.