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Damascus-style shawarma is now available on the East Coast.

Four Syrian men opened their new shawarma and donair restaurant in Dartmouth Friday. They all immigrated from Syria to Halifax. The fourth man just landed here last month.

Ziad Alasadi has been making shawarma for 25 years in Damascus. He fled Syria for Lebanon to save his two kids. “When I was in Damascus, I had two girls, and kidnapping was common.”

“I hate blood. I didn’t want to get involved in the fighting. I didn’t want to kill anybody,” he said. “You would be either a killer or be killed.”

Shawarma skills known

The co-owner of the restaurant, Khaled Mojarkish, used to eat Alasadi’s shawarma in Damascus more than 12 years ago. When Canada opened its door for Syrian refugees in 2015, he decided to help Alasadi come to Canada and to give him a job in his restaurant.

Now, Alasadi gets to deliver the shawarma with the Damascene taste in Dartmouth.

Mojarkish has been living in Halifax since 2007.

“I came as an immigrant, and I worked in the restaurants industry,” Mojarkish said. He studied at the Nova Scotia Community College after landing in the country.

Mojarkish partnered up with his friend Ousama Alkhatib, who also landed in Halifax last year. “He is my friend since we’re in Syria and I sponsored him as a refugee,” Mojarkish said. “We’re lucky to be able to get him with his family to Canada.”

He owned his Station One restaurant on Dartmouth’s Main Street since 2013.

“When we work, we should do a perfect job,” Mojarkish said. “I was about to close the restaurant, but when Ousama came I changed my mind.”

Station One

Station One restaurant on Tacoma Drive is a new version of the eatery that used to be on Main Street.

Mojarkish was struggling with the long daily work shifts, which made it difficult to be with his family. Now he has four children after his wife had twins last year. His wife is a medical lab technologist.

“Ousama tried the food, and was shocked at how good the food is,” Mojarkish said. The newcomer proposed a partnership, but he wanted a better location.

“I’m more excited now because I have people working with me,” Mojarkish said.

Alkhatib came to Halifax from the United Arab Emirates where he worked for many years as a human resources and communication officer for an equestrian club in Abu Dhabi. He was in the UAE on a work permit. “If you lose your job, you lose your residency,” Alkhatib said.

He is married and has two kids. “It’s not safe to take the family back to Syria,” he said.

The business is now dependent on Alkhatib’s management experience, Mojarkish’s food-industry experience and Alasadi’s shawarma-making experience.

The fourth employee at the restaurant is Maher Uanes, another Syrian-Palestinian refugee. He has been in Canada for almost four years; he was sponsored with his two sons by his sister’s family. “My two sons got the Canadian citizenship, and they are studying at Dalhousie University,” he said. “I work here in food preparation.”

The new restaurant serves chicken and beef shawarma, donair, stuffed grape leaves, falafel, hummus and different kinds of salads and rice.

For the four Syrian men, the restaurant is not only a new business, but also a place where their new life in Canada starts. They are working hard together to build their lives in their new country from scratch, hoping for a better future for themselves and their families.

“I see a bright future here … for me and my kids.” Alasadi said.