Arabian bites | A conversation with Saad Albeshir, owner of Stareast Cafe in Portland
Founded: January 2008
Employees: 5
Start-up costs: $100,000
Projected revenue, year one: $40,000
Projected revenue, year two: $90,000
Contact: 775-0013
646 Forest Ave, Portland 04101
How do you describe the business?
It is a café. People come here and have coffee. I do have a full menu. We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everything I did here, I buy this building and this is my design. If you want I can show you a picture, and it is indescribable. I do design, I do construction work. I bought this building and it took me six months [to refurbish it]. When I bought this building, it was just the studs. No ceiling, no floor, no bathroom, no plumbing, no electric, no kitchen, nothing. It was just empty, vacant. It used to be a bar.
Why did you decide to open Stareast?
I always like to have [a] café, like a mixed coffee shop and restaurant. Like, a comfortable, relaxed place. I like to bring different ideas for food. In Maine, we don’t have any Arabic restaurant. And I want to bring the health food, for example. It bothers me when I go to restaurants, or grocery stores, for example, and they’re selling tahini, and they call it Middle Eastern, and that’s not the tahini we are used to, you know what I’m saying? There’s a few places selling falafel but that’s not the Arabic falafel we know.
What is your professional background?
I used to be an electrician in my country back home. I am from Iraq. My father used to do construction and that is why I have always been in development.
Have you ever started a business before?
Oh yes. I own real estate. I manage apartment buildings.
How did you finance the launch of the business?
Well, I have done projects before like this, not restaurants, but myself fixing [buildings]. Some of it was [my money] and some of it, I deal with investments. Commercial investors, I’ve done business with them. I am a handyman so I can avoid a lot of expense. I hired contractors to work on this spot, under my supervision, and I guide them to what they should do. Some of the restaurant, for example, my kitchen, some of the stuff I create. I design a place in which I can put the oven, I’m looking for a shish kebab right now. I have to make it traditional, I have to make it Arabic.
Some of the stuff I buy used. Equipment, machines — kitchen equipment, stuff like this — it didn’t cost much, not much.
What is the biggest challenge for Stareast?
The biggest challenge for this business is people not familiar with Arabic food. They are afraid, some people, to try it, but when they get into it and try it, they come back.
So how do you get people to try your food? How do you get those people through the door?
I give samples to people. I do not really advertise much. That’s why the business, I expect it to grow slow. People like that [motions to customers], they come and they enjoy the food, they bring their friends. Sometimes I give samples for customers [who] come just for the coffee, [they say] ‘Oh, this is such wonderful food!’ And they come back again and they try the food. Pretty much most of my customers, every one of them, most of them they come back again, again, again. And that is why I am so happy with the way business is going.
How do you advertise the café?
I had a review by the Portland Press Herald, and also I did some little advertising two months ago in the Portland Press Herald, one [ad]. And some of my customers did fliers and passed fliers downtown and since then I have not done any.
Why not?
Because I don’t feel I am really, really desperate. I think the way the business is going now is good. I have my customers right now and I know them and they know me. When it gets really, really low then I will do some more advertising.
You said that you were an electrician before and you are also a real estate developer, was it difficult to open a café? It is a totally different kind of business.
Yes, I agree with you. It was not difficult actually for me because I was studying it very well before I got into it. I have friends who own restaurants, [and I studied] through the Internet, and I am very connected to this community of Portland and I know the details, what’s going on, all that stuff. So I did not really do it with blind eyes.
Interview by Sara Donnelly
New Ventures profiles young businesses, 6-18 months old. Send your suggestions and contact information to editorial@mainebiz.biz.
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