![Business Profile
theworlds50best.com | restaurant| March 2015 | 27
Tony Kitous
easier for him to translate dishes for
home cooks and create a restaurant
brand that focuses on simpler, easy-to-
understand dishes.
What I cook is not complicated. Far
from it, in fact. We dont use many
hard-to-find ingredients because I want
people to cook this food at home on a
regular basis. That is why I created
Comptoir. Obviously the customer
comes first, but from an operational
standpoint its good that the dishes are
not complicated because its easier to
train staff and roll out. We leave the more
sexy dinner party stuff to Yotam
[Ottolenghi, the celebrated Israeli-born
chef]. I think he is amazing and has done
wonders for Middle Eastern food in this
country, but were offering something
more everyman and everyday.
Kitous takes his ambassadorial role
seriously and can sometimes be
exhaustingly evangelical: he is clearly a
canny businessman and skilled
restaurateur but he keeps our
conversation focused on the bigger
picture, specifically his dream of a high
street with as many Lebanese
restaurants as Italian ones.
I always compare Lebanese food to
Italian food. After all its a Mediterranean
cuisine, he says. A lot of people dont
realise this. Its fresh, healthy food.
Theres no reason we cant do as well as
the Italians in this game.
Kitous is so preoccupied with Italys
well-documented success in the branded
arena that he has engineered some of his
dishes to go head-to-head with Italian
staples. Theres manaesh a circular flat
bread thats sliced and eaten like a pizza
and a rather good ensemble of
tomatoes, grilled halloumi and fresh
mint leaves conceived by Kitous as an
alternative to a Caprese salad.
The rest of Comptoirs menu reads like
a greatest hits of Middle Eastern cuisine
containing the likes of hummus, baba
ghanoush, tabbouleh and falafel, all
preparations that originated in and
around the Levant. Mains include tagines
(borrowed from Morocco), wraps, salads
and the aforementioned manaesh.
Prices are accessible with mezze dishes
from 贈2.50 and most mains under 贈8.
These dishes arent trendy, Kitous
says firmly as we go through the menu.
This year wont be the year of Lebanese
food. Weve been making this stuff for
thousands of years. I dont want to be the
hottest new thing and dont even get me
started on street food. That term has
been horribly abused by the industry.
Most of our dishes are home-style food
but there is some crossover with those
dishes that started life on the street.
The item that Kitous is most
enthusiastic about is the shawarma, the
usually meat-filled sandwich thats a key
part of Comptoirs menu and the core
focus of Shawa, the fast-casual concept
he opened in Westfield London in 2009.
Made to order with a range of salads
and sauces in front of a customer, the
product is similar to the burrito in terms
of both operations and price point.
The US has done very well with
burritos but they are heavy and full of
carbs. Shawarma is healthy fast food,
says Kitous.
His logic is sound. Shawarma is
currently taking large swathes of the US
and Canada by storm and the average UK
punter is more familiar with the
(comparable) kebab than their
transatlantic counterparts. The tricky bit,
Kitous explains, is severing the
association with booze-fuelled late-night
eating. Unfortunately, kebabs are
something people eat when theyre out
on the piss. But if we can get it right,
Shawa could be much bigger than
Comptoir. But were a small team. Id
rather not do it than do it badly.
Kitous has been talking about
expanding Shawa for a few years and
two more are slated to open this year.
Comptoir, meanwhile, might have
expanded slowly since it launched at
Westfield London, but it retains its status
as a brand to watch. The business has
been approached numerous times by
investors, but for now at least Kitous and
managing director Chaker Hanna are
content to expand slowly with the help
of NatWest and a healthy cashflow. Next
month, a 11th Comptoir will open at the
new Broadgate Circus development near
Liverpool Street station alongside
Yauatcha, ETM Group and Aubaine.
The past few years have seen the
brand probe the market outside central
London with openings in Heathrow and
Gatwick airports and more significantly
a branch in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Kitous says the latter is taking longer to
bed in than its Zone 1 siblings but hes
happy with its performance. Comptoir is
in legals for a site in Manchester, and
Kitous expects three further Comptoirs
to open this year.
While PizzaExpress et al wont be
losing any sleep just yet, Kitous
boundless enthusiasm for Lebanese food
looks set to see Comptoir become a truly
national player. As he says, everybody
has a tub of hummus in the fridge, so
why not?
Comptoir Libanais is a member of
Restaurants R200 Club. For information
on joining the club simply contact
joanne.horton@wrbm.com
Med-led dining: Lebanese
food can compete with
Italian according to Kitous
Levant
Restaurants
Group
at a glance
Founded: 2000
Number Sites: 13
(10 Comptoir
Libanais, Levant,
Kenza, Shawa)
Website:
www.
comptoirlibanais.
com](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/502644da-cd2d-4a37-986e-9126b27f1135-150422065651-conversion-gate02/85/The-Arabian-knight-4-320.jpg)
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- 1. 24| March 2015 | restaurant| bighospitality.co.uk Tony Kitous is on a mission to bring Lebanese food to the high street and believes that the shawarma has what it takes to one day oust the burrito and the burger E verything is eaten with hands here, proclaims my host, setting our knives and forks aside. He reaches over and dunks a lamb kibbeh into its mint flecked-yoghurt sauce and practically shoves it into my mouth. Tony Kitous is on a one-man mission to bring Lebanese food to the masses, and hes not going to let something as trivial as basic table manners get in his way. In 2008, Algerian-born Kitous launched Comptoir Libanais, a scalable restaurant format designed from the ground up to win Lebanese food a presence on the high street. Im a proud man. It kills me that practically every other cuisine has gone mainstream yet Lebanese food and Middle Eastern food in general is still ghettoised, he says. Yes, there are some great ethnic restaurants in ethnic areas but theyre not aimed at British people. Our food has yet to go mass market in that sense. Kitous strategy is centered on making Lebanese cuisine more accessible and less ethnic. Our current location serves as a good illustration. The groups Chelsea-branch there are now 10 Comptoirs in and around London has a clean, contemporary look with retail products lining the walls. Think Bills via Beirut. Cleverly, it manages to work in modern Middle Eastern elements bold geometric patterns, vintage movie posters while avoiding clich辿d elements. Theres not a hookah pipe or sequined cushion in sight. Our tiny table is becoming hopelessly gridlocked. Kitous isnt eating much today but orders a seemingly endless succession of dishes nonetheless. Its partly because Levantine culinary traditions demand I leave utterly replete Words/Joe Lutrario The Arabian knight but it transpires he also wants to assess the quality of his chefs output. Through the meal he points out tiny shortcomings in dishes and on one occasion even sends a plate back to the kitchen because the garnish isnt correct. Im not going to kick ass, he assures me. But Im going to have a word with the chefs and say that some things were great and others need some work. Front of house is coming in for some scrutiny, too. Almost involuntarily, Kitous eyes dart about the room to see if his guests have everything they need. This isnt for show. In fact, he struggles to keep his attention focused on the interview and off the restaurant floor. I dislike the fact were a chain. My biggest worry is losing control as we grow. Thats why our expansion has been fairly slow, he says as he worriedly surveys the room. Im concerned about the execution. As we grow, the cracks get bigger and it becomes harder and harder for me to keep on top of things. Kitous is eating selectively because he needs to lose 12kg for his fifth Marathon de Sables in Morocco next month. Its the toughest foot race on earth. People
- 2. theworlds50best.com | restaurant| March 2015 | 25 Business Profile Tony Kitous die, he says, rather bluntly, before devouring a large portion of foul moudamas, a protein-packed stew of crushed beans with tomatoes and olive oil that along with chicken shawarma forms the basis of his training diet. Its like a drug for me. It started with half marathons then full marathons, but Im always chasing that first buzz so Ive gone on to more extreme running challenges. This will be my ninth ultra-marathon, he adds. The Marathon de Sables is a 156-mile race (the equivalent of six marathons back-to-back) in the searing heat of southern Morocco. Kitous must carry all of his food in a backpack and spend his nights on the floor of a Bedouin tent. Its fair to say hes of the go big or go home school, then. On arriving in London in his late teens with no English, no cash and nowhere to sleep, Kitous worked a string of low-level hospitality jobs including spells as a porter, barman and pizzaiolo. Just a few years later, in 1993, he had got together enough money to open his first restaurant Baboon on Marylebones Wigmore Street and was soon established as a high-profile London restaurateur working with the eras big name chefs including Gary Hollihead and Pat McDonald. In 2000, Kitous launched his first Middle Eastern restaurant, Levant in Marylebone. It was like coming home. I realised Id been operating outside of my comfort zone. This was the food that I knew and loved. More Middle Eastern restaurants followed Kenza in Liverpool Street and Levantine in Paddington (now a Comptoir) and Kitous purchased and turned around Richard Carings Moroccan restaurant Pasha in Kensington. Levant and Kenza are pricier and more special occasion-driven than Comptoir and trade as one-offs within Kitous 13-strong Levant Restaurants Group. Kitous describes himself as an accomplished home cook rather than a chef. He doesnt have an executive chef or development chef, and personally pens the menus at all of his restaurants as well as keeping tabs on food quality. When hes not training for punishing runs he is a prolific eater, travelling to the Middle East dozens of times a year. Despite not being a chef, Kitous has become a successful envoy for Lebanese food in the UK, with numerous appearances on TV food shows and two successful Comptoir-branded cookbooks. He points out that his lack of professional kitchen experience makes it Its not a sprint: Tony Kitous would rather expand the business slowly
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- 4. Business Profile theworlds50best.com | restaurant| March 2015 | 27 Tony Kitous easier for him to translate dishes for home cooks and create a restaurant brand that focuses on simpler, easy-to- understand dishes. What I cook is not complicated. Far from it, in fact. We dont use many hard-to-find ingredients because I want people to cook this food at home on a regular basis. That is why I created Comptoir. Obviously the customer comes first, but from an operational standpoint its good that the dishes are not complicated because its easier to train staff and roll out. We leave the more sexy dinner party stuff to Yotam [Ottolenghi, the celebrated Israeli-born chef]. I think he is amazing and has done wonders for Middle Eastern food in this country, but were offering something more everyman and everyday. Kitous takes his ambassadorial role seriously and can sometimes be exhaustingly evangelical: he is clearly a canny businessman and skilled restaurateur but he keeps our conversation focused on the bigger picture, specifically his dream of a high street with as many Lebanese restaurants as Italian ones. I always compare Lebanese food to Italian food. After all its a Mediterranean cuisine, he says. A lot of people dont realise this. Its fresh, healthy food. Theres no reason we cant do as well as the Italians in this game. Kitous is so preoccupied with Italys well-documented success in the branded arena that he has engineered some of his dishes to go head-to-head with Italian staples. Theres manaesh a circular flat bread thats sliced and eaten like a pizza and a rather good ensemble of tomatoes, grilled halloumi and fresh mint leaves conceived by Kitous as an alternative to a Caprese salad. The rest of Comptoirs menu reads like a greatest hits of Middle Eastern cuisine containing the likes of hummus, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh and falafel, all preparations that originated in and around the Levant. Mains include tagines (borrowed from Morocco), wraps, salads and the aforementioned manaesh. Prices are accessible with mezze dishes from 贈2.50 and most mains under 贈8. These dishes arent trendy, Kitous says firmly as we go through the menu. This year wont be the year of Lebanese food. Weve been making this stuff for thousands of years. I dont want to be the hottest new thing and dont even get me started on street food. That term has been horribly abused by the industry. Most of our dishes are home-style food but there is some crossover with those dishes that started life on the street. The item that Kitous is most enthusiastic about is the shawarma, the usually meat-filled sandwich thats a key part of Comptoirs menu and the core focus of Shawa, the fast-casual concept he opened in Westfield London in 2009. Made to order with a range of salads and sauces in front of a customer, the product is similar to the burrito in terms of both operations and price point. The US has done very well with burritos but they are heavy and full of carbs. Shawarma is healthy fast food, says Kitous. His logic is sound. Shawarma is currently taking large swathes of the US and Canada by storm and the average UK punter is more familiar with the (comparable) kebab than their transatlantic counterparts. The tricky bit, Kitous explains, is severing the association with booze-fuelled late-night eating. Unfortunately, kebabs are something people eat when theyre out on the piss. But if we can get it right, Shawa could be much bigger than Comptoir. But were a small team. Id rather not do it than do it badly. Kitous has been talking about expanding Shawa for a few years and two more are slated to open this year. Comptoir, meanwhile, might have expanded slowly since it launched at Westfield London, but it retains its status as a brand to watch. The business has been approached numerous times by investors, but for now at least Kitous and managing director Chaker Hanna are content to expand slowly with the help of NatWest and a healthy cashflow. Next month, a 11th Comptoir will open at the new Broadgate Circus development near Liverpool Street station alongside Yauatcha, ETM Group and Aubaine. The past few years have seen the brand probe the market outside central London with openings in Heathrow and Gatwick airports and more significantly a branch in Kingston-upon-Thames. Kitous says the latter is taking longer to bed in than its Zone 1 siblings but hes happy with its performance. Comptoir is in legals for a site in Manchester, and Kitous expects three further Comptoirs to open this year. While PizzaExpress et al wont be losing any sleep just yet, Kitous boundless enthusiasm for Lebanese food looks set to see Comptoir become a truly national player. As he says, everybody has a tub of hummus in the fridge, so why not? Comptoir Libanais is a member of Restaurants R200 Club. For information on joining the club simply contact joanne.horton@wrbm.com Med-led dining: Lebanese food can compete with Italian according to Kitous Levant Restaurants Group at a glance Founded: 2000 Number Sites: 13 (10 Comptoir Libanais, Levant, Kenza, Shawa) Website: www. comptoirlibanais. com