Falafel Inc.

Falafel Inc. was founded by Ahmad Ashkar, a Palestinian-American entrepreneur, with the explicit purpose of addressing the refugee employment crisis through a food business model. The restaurants employ and train Syrian and Afghan refugees in Washington, providing job training, English language support, and the entry-level food service employment that the DC labor market offers to people who are navigating a new country. The falafel is both the product and the vehicle for the social mission.

The falafel itself, which Falafel Inc. produces from the traditional chickpea and fava bean preparation, represents one of the most important street foods in the Levantine culinary tradition. The falafel’s origin is contested among Egypt, Lebanon, and Israel, with each claiming the dish as a national food; what is less contested is that the fried chickpea ball has been a staple of the Middle Eastern street food and everyday table for centuries. The preparation involves soaking dried chickpeas, grinding them with parsley, coriander, garlic, and spices, forming the mixture into balls or disks, and frying them until crispy outside and green-tinged from the herbs inside.

The falafel at Falafel Inc. is served in the Levantine wrap format: a fresh pita or flatbread filled with the falafel balls, tahini, hummus, pickled vegetables, fresh tomato, cucumber, and the sauces that the Levantine street sandwich has developed. The hummus at a restaurant that takes the chickpea preparation seriously is made fresh from dried chickpeas rather than from canned, which produces a smoother texture and a fresher flavor than the commercial product.

The Potomac Street Georgetown address at 1210 is near the canal level, in the residential-commercial block that connects the M Street commercial district to the Georgetown waterfront area. Hours run from 10am most days and 11am on Sundays. Ahmad Ashkar founded Falafel Inc. in Washington after working with the United Nations and other international organizations on refugee issues, which gave him direct knowledge of the employment barriers that newly arrived refugees face. The food business model, which uses the falafel as both the product and the symbol of the Middle Eastern origin of many of the refugees the program serves, is a practical solution to a systemic problem: food service is one of the industries where people can build skills and employment history quickly without needing the credentials that other industries require. The Potomac Street Georgetown location at 1210 is one of the original Falafel Inc. locations, and serves as the neighborhood demonstration of the social enterprise model that the company has expanded to additional DC-area addresses. The social enterprise model that Falafel Inc. employs is the model that disability and refugee employment advocates identify as the most effective: real employment in real businesses at real wages. The Potomac Street Georgetown location at 1210 provides this in the commercial context of Georgetown’s food market, where the customer’s purchase directly supports the employment program alongside the enjoyment of a well-made falafel. Hours run from 10am daily and 11am on Sunday.