From Lebanon to Columbus: How Habibi Grill’s Owner is Spreading Love Through Food

In the heart of Columbus, Ohio, a culinary gem named Habibi Grill is redefining Mediterranean cuisine with a touch of love. Founded by Lebanese immigrant Tarek Albast, this restaurant isn’t just about serving food—it’s about building community, pursuing passion, and achieving the American dream. From humble beginnings with a food truck to being voted the best restaurant in Columbus, Albast’s journey is a testament to perseverance, quality, and the power of staying true to one’s roots.

By: Brody Howell

Entrepreneurs of Columbus Editorial Staff

Follow Habibi Grill on Socials: Facebook | Instagram

Tell me a bit about Habibi Grill. What does it mean to you?

The word Habibi in Arabic means my love. With the vibes these days, we just wanted to spread the love in every language. It’s one of the most common words that everybody uses in the Middle East. Now in the United States, even my American friends joke and say, “hey Habibi, how are you?” For someone that you value, you tell them Habibi. 

And that’s what the name means. We decided to open Habibi here because the area needed it. There are a lot of good restaurants, but there is no restaurant that opens for lunch and dinner straight, you know, full hours. This area really needed vegetarian and vegan options, and we are one of the biggest vegetarian and vegan options. People love our food. 

Mediterranean food now, it’s spiking up big time. We’re really special about it because we create everything from scratch on a daily basis. We don’t have anything canned or anything. Everything is created on a daily basis.

You mentioned Habibi being something important in Arabic. How important do you think community is to you?

Community is everything to me. It’s the most important thing to be loved by your community and to give to your community as well, because you are nothing without your community.

What would you say the city of Columbus means to you as a whole?

Columbus is my backbone. They have stood behind me, supported me from A to Z. In every single way. The city of Columbus, we cater for them. The city staff members, they’re always here. We do their house parties. So every single thing that goes on, they’ve never left me on my own. 

Are you from Columbus originally?

Lebanon. 

I have a friend who lives up in Dearborn, Michigan, and I know there’s a pretty big Lebanese population up there.

My whole family lives in Dearborn. Well, not immediate family like my dad, but other relatives.

What made you want to come to Columbus?

I came to Columbus in 2005. I loved it. I fell in love with it. I felt home. I went to stay in Dearborn, and with all due respect… I don’t know, I didn’t like it. I don’t know why, but I just didn’t feel like I could stand out. So I stayed there for not even 25 days. The plan was moving there and I just couldn’t. Here in Columbus, the city supports the local businesses. The people love you. You’re in your own lane. Nobody touches you. In my opinion, it is the best city I’ve seen in my whole life, and I traveled the whole world. Columbus is the best city that you can start from zero.

What do you think that Columbus is part of that way? 

When you look at the picture from the top, we don’t get compared to New York or to Chicago, but in certain things we do. When my rent was $600 versus the same size apartment would be $2,000 in New York and their income is not that much higher. My friends live in Cali in Orange County. They, both of them brothers, live in the dining area of their apartment with two beds on top of each other. They pay $2,300. I’m having a whole one bedroom with a separate dining area and everything you’re talking about $625. If they’re making $10,000 and I’m making $6,000, I still have a better life than them. Cost of living, it makes a huge difference.

Is there a pretty big Lebanese community in Columbus?

In Columbus, there is not. There is the third generation, and I was shocked. When we opened the business, we had about 40 to 50 families show up who are actually in Columbus. None of them speak the language, but their parents did.

When did you realize that restaurants were something you wanted to do? 

I grew up with it. I was about 13 years old back home and we don’t have an age limit to work. So in the summertime after school, you have four months off that you have to work. It’s almost a requirement from parents. I always choose food, food, restaurant, restaurant. I love it. It became a part of me. When I’m working in the kitchen, I’m at the happiest place of my life. I feel like it’s the best thing ever. I always suggest that if you want to work somewhere on your own, make sure you love it, not just because it makes you good money. Otherwise, at one point you will burn out. But loving it and making money? That’s heaven.

When did you first realize you were successful?

When I came here, my dad opened a corner store. I opened a small pizza corner inside the store. It went well. Then I opened a hookah lounge that has a kitchen in it. So I opened the kitchen inside the hookah lounge called Midnight Hookah. Then I was like, “people love my food. Let me just take the next step.” But at that point, financially, I wasn’t strong yet. And I said, “let me start with a food truck.” So I started my first food truck in 2015. It grew to five trucks.  We sold those trucks and we opened a brick and mortar store, which is called Mr. Hummus Grill over on Bethel. Mr. Hummus Grill, the dine-in, spread to three more locations. But Habibi is the dream. I built the kitchen the way I wanted. I built everything the way I like to see. I built my office. Everything in here means something personal to me. All the murals we have are important to me, places I worked, where I used to spend my Summers, the neighborhood where I grew up.

What do you think sets the Habibi Grill apart from other Mediterranean places in Columbus?

The quality. The quality is the key here. What we use, nobody else can afford to use.

Do you feel like that extra quality is worth the cost that you end up having to pay up front?

Absolutely. It’s super worth it. I found out people these days don’t mind paying, but they mind when you give them a $30 meal and you’re giving a small amount of food and it’s not perfect quality. Where we really shine here is giving a huge amount of food at the best quality. When we deal with our vendors, we don’t ask for prices. The first question we ask, “what’s your best chicken tender? So what’s your best filet mignon?” We use the highest quality. Whatever beef you eat here, you’d pay $200 for that same quality at somewhere like Hyde Park. Same exact brand, same exact vendor.

I noticed you have a pretty big social media presence. What do you think is the key to success on social media?

I maintain it personally. It’s about consistency. You have to make sure that every day there is something. You have to remind the people of your stuff, of your product, of what you do. Because people will be sitting on their phone and they see that plate of food. And if you disappear for a week, you’re out of sight out of mind. You know what I mean? If I’m not looking at your stuff, I’m not going to remember you. These days, my social media, it’s one of the best things that got me what I’m at today.

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Sort of like what we were talking about regarding community.

Oh, absolutely. Community comes from Instagram too. So your community doesn’t have to be just people on your street. So make sure you’re posting, connecting, sharing, replying to people. This is really important. It’s the most important to be honest. So now our community comes from Gahanna as well, who comes from Hilliard. We have people drive from Cleveland, over 10 to 16 percent of our business comes from Cleveland.

And they’ll come down here and drive home? 

They come here and they drive back. Two food bloggers from there posted us all over. They were in Columbus when we did the grand opening and we didn’t know who they were. I wish I did. I want to meet them. But they literally got us two million views on our Instagram.

What have been some of your biggest difficulties running businesses?

COVID. COVID was the biggest thing that knocked me down, and we recovered from it, but COVID was tough. Especially with the staff. Every other thing was fine. I never was short on product. I always had my stuff, but the staffing was killing me. That’s why I shifted from full dining in to self service stations. This was supposed to be a full dine in with full service, and we shifted because of the staffing.

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A lot of businesses did fail during COVID. What do you think makes you different?

We’re family operated, so when we lost our staff, the family said, “we’re all in this together.” And we were, you know. My dad is here. My fiance is here. So we all stood up. So we were doing the dishes, the cooking, and we kept everything in a perfect condition. It was helpful because the labor dropped so much but we still had higher and higher sales numbers. 

I would say that it’s fair to say every business owner has some kind of flaw. What do you think yours is? 

I feel I’ve reached the highest standard I set for myself, and I’m very proud of myself for being true to myself and what I‘ve accomplished. At dinner when you stand outside and you have people in line for 20 feet out of the door, I’m very thankful to have that.

Is there anything you’re working on right now that you feel like you’re excited to share with the world?

Habibi is growing. We can’t say dates and places yet, but I can share one thing that is coming to Columbus is going to be shocking from Habibi. We have something for Columbus and Cleveland. 

What would you say is your number one piece of advice for people wanting to start a business?

It’s not easy, man. It’s not easy. We were voted as the best restaurant in Columbus by 614 Magazine. We received over 400,000 votes. We were voted the best new restaurant as well. There is nothing that’s impossible. You have to be consistent. You can’t give up. Giving up should not be an option in anything. In a relationship, in work, in life. You cannot give up.  You have to always just get up in the morning and thank God that you woke up, you’re healthy, you can move. Other people wish to have that option. There are a lot of people who don’t make it in the morning. There’s a lot of people who wake up and can’t even walk. There are a lot of people born unable to walk. So whatever you have going on, just be thankful for it and just keep going. Don’t stop. It’s going to get ugly, it’s going to get nasty, it’s going to get disgusting, it’s going to get boring. But trust me, regret is a lot worse than all of that. 

Who do you turn to when you have those moments where you want to give up? Who helps keep you on track?

My dad. We’re best friends. He’s the guy that I look up to. He’s always 100% on the same page with me. 

You said he was a business owner himself. Does he have a lot of good advice for you in that regard?

He loves it. He trusts me so much to the point that he doesn’t get even one percent involved. He’s told me he’s never seen me make a wrong decision, so he says he’s going to get involved. He said, “you do what you know the best, and if you don’t fail you will never learn.” 

A lot of people go out there and they try to succeed right away. They don’t realize that you have to work for it.

You have to earn it. They don’t realize it’s not easy. I have friends that say, “oh, I want to open my own business, and I want to do this, I want to do that. I want to get rich.” I remind them that, as a business owner, you’re the last one that’s paid. You will have fewer days off. You will have a mind that doesn’t stop and doesn’t sleep. You know those things are expensive. It costs so much to have those.

I was asleep, this was about two months ago, and I woke up in the middle of the night and I was like, “I forgot to order an item.” It got back to me in my sleep.This is how bad it gets when you’re successful. It has a price. It’s taken sleep away from me. Yes I’m making tons of money, but sometimes you have to value other things.

It’s a ladder and you have to go step by step. Some people just want to take a jump to the middle and another jump to the top. It won’t work. For me to be this successful today, I had to go through four or five restaurants. 

What does it mean to you to be an entrepreneur? 

It gives me confidence and pride knowing I started from zero. It makes me very proud of myself. I’m very confident of my product, my life, the hard work I have done, helping others. 

Are there any entrepreneurs that you look up to? 

I want to be just like my dad. As a kid, he was always the most impressive person to me. He was always successful. He always made sure our family was so happy and we were doing great. I never wanted to be like any other big restaurants. That was never an intention for me. I always wanted to have my own brand. I thank God it’s working big time. Big, big time. 

What do you recommend to a first time customer?

I always love for people to try the lamb and the chicken. The lamb because we work on it so hard, we marinate it for five, six hours and then we cook it for eight hours. So there’s a lot of time put into it. And the chicken because we use that tenderloin. We don’t use the chicken breast or thighs or anything. Always the tenderloin which is three times the price. It makes a huge difference. 

If someone coming from Lebanon visited Columbus, would they taste home here?

More than home. Even more than home. I worked in Lebanon and I know the difference. Now, because of the economy and stuff back home, they cannot provide the quality that we provide here. They can’t. The income is shredded and things are harder. I’m absolutely big time aware and sure of my product. It’s better than any place back home. 

What would you recommend to a first time visitor of the city of Columbus?

Food wise, I love Hyde Park. Jeff Ruby’s I really like. If they want it like a food hall or stuff, I really like Budd Dairy. I love Aab India, it’s one of my favorites too. 

What would you say is the end goal for your business?

There is no end goal. There’s always a start. Passing it on to someone else, that’s not a possibility yet. I can’t answer for the future, but I don’t see myself not working. Even if I have millions and billions. I love work. I love what I do. For me, being here is heaven. I literally drop everything to just be at this place. If I’m not cooking here, I’m cooking at home.  For passing it on, it would probably only go to one person, which is Adam, my son. But there is no end goal. There is always a start goal. I have goals that haven’t even started yet. So I’m on that path. 

How do you stay so motivated to push yourself as hard as you do?

I’m afraid of the regret I’ll feel if I don’t. If you don’t come in one day and something bad happens, then you’re going to regret it. You’d wish you were there to fix it. I see my son every day. I see my dad. I have my whole family depending on me. Not being here is not an option. There is no backup plan for them. If I fail, they fail.  Every day, the first thing in the morning that I do when I open my eyes, I thank God I’m healthy and I can stand up. I always think about my son. Like, how can I make his life better? Sometimes it’s hard. Sometimes it’s really hard, but I just switch the whole bowl around. A lot of people wish to have 5% of what you have. So keep going and remember the value in what you’ve got.

As Habibi Grill continues to captivate Columbus with its flavors, Tarek Albast’s story serves as an inspiration to aspiring entrepreneurs. His journey from a small pizza corner to a beloved restaurant exemplifies the power of passion, perseverance, and community support. With plans for expansion and an unwavering commitment to quality, Habibi Grill is not just feeding Columbus—it’s nourishing dreams and spreading love, one plate at a time. For Albast and his loyal customers, the future of Habibi Grill looks as bright and flavorful as the dishes it serves.