Jack Yuan sits a few steps away from the kitchen in the back corner of King David’s Restaurant, the same place he has sat every day since 1981.

Finishing his meal next to a table where the restaurant’s co-owner talks, he compares the Middle Eastern food to that of other countries. The falafel is just like the falafel in Jerusalem, and the hummus is like that of Beirut, he said. From Yuan’s perspective, one of the restaurant’s co-owners, Milad Hatem, has not changed much in three decades.

‘Milad doesn’t look older than 30 years ago,’ Yuan said.

But family members say 76-year-old Hatem is nearing retirement age and that King David’s, a restaurant that has served Middle Eastern cuisine on Marshall Street since 1974, may give way to a Chipotle Mexican Grill. Some customers have eaten at King David’s for decades and said they would be upset to see it go.

The Syracuse Common Council unanimously approved Chipotle’s proposal to replace King David’s on Nov. 8. King David’s would lease the building to Chipotle under the new deal, which is not finalized. Chipotle has talked to the family-owned restaurant for eight months, said Milad’s son, Charlie, who has worked at King David’s for 25 years.

‘We’re not really 100 percent sure if that’s what we want to do yet,’ Charlie said. ‘It’s hard to let go of a business that you’ve been a part of for so many years.’

If the restaurant completes the deal, Charlie will take over King David’s and try to relocate it in the Syracuse University or downtown Syracuse area as a smaller operation, he said.

The economy has already taken a toll on King David’s, which saw its number of dinnertime customers drop when the recession hit, Milad said. He did not have an exact number on the decrease. But he said the restaurant still sees customers from around the world.

‘Every day I have a lot of people from different countries,’ he said. ‘Greek, Turkish, Italian — you know, it’s mixed.’

The restaurant’s look has changed since it first opened in the 1970s. Where the kitchen is now, there used to be five stairs leading up to a room that resembled a ‘cave,’ Charlie said. The room had a lopsided floor, a dark red carpet, cracked walls, orange leather seats and tables that could hold 30 to 40 customers.

‘The tables were so close together, but people loved sitting in that room,’ Charlie said.

Outside of that room, archways separated the cooking area from the seating area. The whole building resembled a house turned into a restaurant, Charlie said.

But that all changed on SU’s graduation day in 1987.

Someone threw a cigarette into empty boxes in the alley behind the restaurant, igniting a blaze that burned the building’s second floor and leaked water damage to the lower floor, where the restaurant was located. The tanning beds inside a tanning salon that Charlie and his brother owned on the second floor melted.

‘That was probably one of our saddest days right there in this whole restaurant for my dad and my mom,’ Charlie said. ‘They were standing outside watching their business and building burn down.’

The family decided to knock down the building because of the damage and rebuild it. Construction took nearly eight months, leading to a more open restaurant that could seat about 20 additional people. But the new design had a less cozy and intimate feel than the previous King David’s, Charlie said.

‘I wish we never knocked down that building,’ he said, recalling the previous restaurant’s look during a break from work on Monday.

A picture of the old building sticks out today from the dessert display case next to the cash machine, along with photos of the owners’ grandchildren. Red rugs guide customers at the front of the restaurant to the cashier as they pass by framed pictures and large rugs hanging on the walls.

Ten years ago, the restaurant also added dinnertime entertainment. Every couple of weeks, four belly dancers bring their own music and dance in front of dinnertime customers for nearly three hours.

The restaurant’s customers range from hospital workers to university faculty and students. Some customers have been coming to King David’s for at least two decades.

Eric Schiff, an SU physics professor, has visited the restaurant since the early 1980s. Waiting for a cup of Turkish coffee during lunch on Friday, he called King David’s less predictable and more personable than the other eateries on Marshall Street.

‘I like Middle Eastern food. This is the only place around that does it and does it well,’ he said.

Sitting next to Schiff, Mark Bowick, another SU physics professor, said he has been coming to the restaurant since 1987.

‘It’s lively, lots of people eating here,’ he said.

Rosette Aksterowicz, daughter of the King David’s owners, was a waitress to customers at the restaurant for two years, when she was 16 to 18 years old. The place has a very loyal customer following, as she recognizes customers from 20 years ago, she said.

Aksterowicz’s mom used to pick her up from school nearly three times a week and bring her to the restaurant, where Aksterowicz would watch her mom cook in the kitchen, she said.

‘This was like my second home,’ she said. ‘I used to come here all the time as a kid.’

The restaurant’s decision to possibly relocate was more about her dad looking to retire than the lower number of customers in the past four or five years, she said. But larger chain restaurants are replacing smaller businesses in all areas, she said.

Even with other family members saying the relocation of King David’s is likely, Angela Hatem, the co-owner of the restaurant, said the family will ‘never close it.’

‘I told my husband if I die, he can bury me in the basement,’ she said.

But her son and husband said the negotiations with Chipotle continue.

For longtime customer Rosemary Gates, the closure of King David’s would be disappointing, she said. Gates, a professor of mental health at the Crouse Hospital School of Nursing, has been eating at the restaurant for 18 years during her half-hour lunch breaks.

The fast service was great at King David’s, Gates said, because of her short break time from work. One waitress at King David’s used to know what Gates and her friends ordered on the spot.

‘There’s really only a couple of cornerstone places that have been here for a long time, and this is one of them,’ she said. ‘So it’ll be sad to see that go.’

mcboren@syr.edu

Published on November 16, 2010 at 12:00 pm