Refugee Chef Brings Syria To Westville

Nearly a decade after losing his family’s former pizza restaurant to a bombing in Syria, refugee and culinary entrepreneur Mazen Saloumi has opened a new Middle Eastern pizza restaurant in Westville.

That new restaurant is called Westville Emesa Pizza. It’s located at the former site of Westville Pizza & Mediterranean Cuisine at 883 Whalley Ave.

The restaurant’s grand opening on Friday marked the culmination of six years of Saloumi’s hard work in kitchens across the Elm City, from Est Est Est to Sanctuary Kitchen. It also represented his return to running a Middle Eastern pizza place after his family lost their business and fled their home country in 2012, eventually making their way via Jordan to New Haven in 2015.

At their new Westville digs, the Saloumi’s are finding a way to fuse Italian and Syrian food — preserving their own cultural heritage as well as the traditions of the well-known restaurant space they recently acquired.

“When [my dad] came here, he started working to the [restaurant] dream since day one,” said Ayman Al-Saloumi, Mazen’s 21-year-old son. ​“After everything they lost back in Syria, they did not give up. They’re still working hard to rebuild what they lost.”

Westville Emesa Pizza is packed with the Saloumi’s reminders of home. Pictures of Damascus and Homs hang on the walls. Mazen’s shelves are crammed with Middle Eastern spices. The word ​“Emesa” comes from the pre-Islamic name for Homs.

Sometimes, Mazen combines black pepper, cumin, paprika, coriander, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cardamom to make a popular Middle Eastern mix known as the Seven Spices. He also drove all the way to Michigan to get a Shawarma and Kebab grill.

Ayman said that being away from Syria gets particularly difficult during the holidays when his family would normally gather with all of their relatives. He was only 12 when he left Syria. His sisters were even younger.

“Here, we’re trying to find the same peace that we had back in Syria,” said Ayman. ​“The only missing thing is our relatives.”

Mazen has been doing what he can to rebuild those family values in the restaurant. All six employees working in the restaurant are refugees from Syria. Some even come from the same city.

The previous owner of the storefront on 883 Whalley was also a Syrian refugee. Ziad Hamoudeh was well known for his Mediterranean food and pizza. Mazen didn’t want to change that tradition for people living in Westville. He simply wanted to add his own Syrian twist.

Mazen said that when he was working for other pizza restaurants in New Haven, he discovered that Americans love to try new things. That’s what drives his desire to combine Syrian and Italian cuisines.

“The dough makes the difference,” translated Ayman. ​“He adds milk and eggs with some other spices — it’s similar to the dough we used to make in Syria.”

Using that same dough, the Saloumi’s used to make cheese pies, meat pies, Za’atar Manaquish, and more in Albdour, their restaurant in Syria.

They will continue to make Manaquish in Westville Emesa Pizza. Manaquish consists of the same dough topped with thyme, cheese, or ground meat. Ayman said that Tabbouleh, Falafel, Muhammara, and Italian Shawarma are some other staples of their new menu.

On Thursday evening, the Saloumi’s celebrated their opening by handing out 50 free pizzas to the neighborhood.