Spheres of Cultural Influence
by Diana Lu
This article originally appeared in RQ Vol. 1 // Issue Three: SPHERES, Winter 2019. Purchase a copy and subscribe to the magazine here.
Writer Diana Lu has selected Asian Mosaic Fund Giving Circle to receive a portion of single issue sales of the magazine in which this story first appeared. Root Quarterly will donate 20% of the proceeds from the copies of Vol. 1 // Issue Three: SPHERES that sell between October 26th, 2020 and December 31st, 2020.
When Saad Alrayes opened his eponymous restaurant in 1996 at 4500 Walnut St. in West Philadelphia, he recalled a battleground among rival drug dealers and drive-by shootings that led his customers to dive under tables. Businesses such as Monarch Hardware and Abyssinia dotted the neighborhood, but there was no foot traffic at night. St. Andrew’s Methodist Church, built in 1907, sat abandoned and burned out on the northeast corner of the intersection.
The big change, he says, came when the former church was redeveloped into a mosque, school, and community center. The Association of Islamic Charity Projects (AICP), an international nonprofit association, bought the building in 1991, and established its North American headquarters there. They transformed the site, and the neighborhood, too, with their presence and eyes on the street.
Ali Ghazzawi, one of the founding imams, told the Philadelphia City Paper in 2011, “When we came, it was a dangerous neighborhood. A lot of drug dealers. When we opened it, the neighborhood welcomed us because we’re here most of the time.” Congregation members became the “unofficial community watch,” running shifts at night to keep the streets active and deter vandals. It helped clear the violence and drug activity, slowly, so the neighborhood could begin to thrive. Now, he’s proud of the bustling and diverse business district and international atmosphere. His neighbors are proud to be there too.
In addition to the mosque on that northeast corner, it now boasts a Chinese church. The newest kid on the block, the University City Chinese Christian Church (UCCCC), hails from a nearly 80-year-old institution. The church’s history is part Chinese and part Chinatown. Pastor Tony Liang, who helped found UCCCC, was part of the first 1977 class of college students immediately after the end of the Cultural Revolution.
Following the Tiananmen Square protests and tragedy, a Mainland Chinese student ministry was started in 1989, ultimately forming a Mandarin-speaking congregation in 1995. Their “mother church,” the Chinese Christian Church and Center, was established in Chinatown in 1941. The flock then moved to University City in 2004, to meet the needs of the growing Chinese student population. They worshiped out of a free space at Drexel University and were eventually housed at the Church of God, Gospel Spreading Church at 41st and Chestnut streets. UCCCC became independently incorporated in 2009 and was ready to grow roots. It landed in 2011 on a vacant strip mall, built on a brownfield site that had housed a gas station.
Former congregation members, many of whom have since returned to Mainland China, donated from abroad to make the project work. Locally, the Spruce Hill Neighbors Association flooded then-Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell’s office with letters and emails of support, since the international students were not voting constituents. In addition to providing religious services, the church is also a site for community zoning meetings, dance classes, and a Chinese language program. Many of the students frequent the restaurants on the block, further intertwining the international and immigrant communities in West Philadelphia.
The story of the four corners of 45th and Walnut is one of decades-long change, rebirth, and international celebration. And now, newer Philadelphians and eaters like me are able to learn from their cultural traditions, experience safer streets, and eat some really delicious food made by neighbors who have invested in our community.
Sandwiches of legend at Saad’s Halal Restaurant
Students began flocking to Alrayes’ halal lunch truck in 1989, long before he moved to his brick-and-mortar shop, Saad’s Halal Restaurant. The mainstay came at a time when traceable meats, humanely slaughtered by hand, weren’t readily available in the city. Alrayes butchered the animals himself at different slaughterhouses in Skippack and New Jersey, and the business now sources from an organic halal slaughterhouse in Paterson.
By the time I moved to West Philly in 2009, I knew Saad’s as the go-to spot for my vegan roommates; its significance in the Muslim community taken for granted by my lack of eating restrictions. I just knew it as delicious.
And delicious, it is. Take it from me: The food at Saad’s is no joke. The beloved establishment is famous for its cheesesteaks, handsome selection of vegetarian plates, and chicken maroosh sandwich. Everything is made from scratch, and it has earned accolades from Zagat, Saveur magazine, and the Food Network. But who cares what non-Philadelphians say about cheesesteaks?
It’s also been tagged in Philadelphia Magazine’s ‘30 Cheesesteaks to Eat Before You Die,’ ‘Best Shawarma in Philadelphia,’ and in the 2019 ultimate hoagie guide (the chicken maroosh sandwich was decidedly eligible and superior). This champion sandwich is a massive earthly delight with tender chicken (marinated overnight and then cooked on a low flame for four hours), tomato, parsley, and Lebanese pickles covered in their highly addictive white garlic sauce, all stuffed in an Amoroso’s roll and finished off in the panini press. The name and style is a nod to Maroosh, a restaurant in Beirut that served its sandwiches in hoagie rolls. You can get beef, lamb, and, by popular demand, falafel sandwiches the “maroosh-way.” Pair that with fries and their citrusy and bright tabouli salad, and you have the ingredients for a mild food coma. They accept cash and debit only, as interest is forbidden in Islam. Alrayes closes the business for a month during Ramadan, returning home to Lebanon to spend the holiday with his family.
Manakeesh: A bank turned bakery
The AICP extended its community nourishment in 2011, converting a vacant former bank building into a Lebanese bakery, restaurant, and juice bar. Manakeesh Cafe Bakery & Grill at 4420 Walnut St. is a labor of family love, through and through. Dr. Wissam Chatila, a longtime congregation member, started the cafe with Imam Ghazzawi’s son Abd. They worked closely with University City District to secure a $50,000 ReStore grant from Philadelphia’s Commerce Department and the Merchants Fund, monies earmarked specifically for transformative retail businesses on critical commercial corridors.
“Before social entrepreneurship was a term, they were practicing it,” says Patricia Blakely, former head of the Merchants Fund. “They stabilized the corner, created jobs, brought foot traffic… and their food is great.”
Chatila’s son Adam serves as general manager. Adam, who comically related to me that he was “always a foodie and a fat child,” grew up on the block: He attended the Islamic Education School at the AICP, where his mother used to teach. You may encounter her at the restaurant, teaching Islamic studies to employees. The staff members are a snapshot of the diaspora and the AICP’s congregation: Algerian, Egyptian, African American, Lebanese—they even have a guy from Wisconsin—but importantly they support each other and appreciate working in and with the Muslim community. “No one teases them for praying here,” Adam explains.
I will put upfront that Manakeesh makes the best lamb burger in the city. Fight me. Then try it. Then agree with me. It is smoky, juicy, and perfectly charred on the outside and still pink on the inside. When you’re not passing out from the scent of grilled meats, engulf yourself in the beautiful aroma of freshly baked sweets: We’re talking mamoul (stuffed shortbread cookies), basboosa (almond semolina cakes), and their award-winning baklava. I grab their candies by the fistful—delicious homemade nougat, fruit, and nut delights that get stuck in my teeth in the best way possible. The European colonial influence in Lebanon’s history plays out with their French pastries and crepes. The imported Turkish coffee is individually brewed and beautifully presented in its copper pot. Everything at Manakeesh is made to order and is worth every tantalizing, succulent minute.
Manakeesh, their namesake item, is a traditional Lebanese flatbread (Arabic for “poked,” for the finger indentations similar to focaccia dough) topped with your heart’s delight—choose from cheese, veggies, labneh (a tangy yogurt), garlicky chicken, beef sausage, or simply za’atar (a spice blend of thyme, oregano, sumac, and sesame).
When Adam’s father was in college, he would get a za’atar manakeesh and a Pepsi, and he wanted to recreate the familiar comfort-food spot that was so common at every corner in Lebanon. He succeeded.
And there you have it. One of the best cheesesteaks in the city. Lebanese flatbreads made from an open-flame oven imported from Beirut. The best lamb burger in the city (remember, I will fight you). Sacred spaces to worship and gather freely. And, within a one-block radius, an Argentinian culinary studio, hardware store, several Ethiopian and Eritrean restaurants, a thrift store, a Taiwanese bubble tea spot, a coffee shop with plenty of vegan options, and a tattoo parlor.
Now that’s West Philadelphia.
Association of Islamic Charity Projects
4431 Walnut Street
Saad’s Halal Restaurant
4500 Walnut Street
Manakeesh Cafe Bakery & Grill
4420 Walnut Street
University City Chinese Christian Church
4501 Walnut Street
This article originally appeared in RQ Vol. 1 // Issue Three: SPHERES, Winter 2019. Purchase a copy and subscribe to the magazine here.
Diana Lu is a contributing food editor and the “Constellations” columnist for RQ. She has spent more than ten years in the nonprofit, public, media, and private sectors working on urban development issues including environmental justice, design-based manufacturing, and community and economic development. Lu’s work has appeared on WHYY, the CitiesSpeak blog for the National League of Cities, and in shows produced by the Asian Arts Initiative and FringeArts. She manages the Germantown Info Hub, a community-centered journalism project that shares information for and by Germantown residents. Lu holds a master’s in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from Vassar College.
Writer Diana Lu has selected Asian Mosaic Fund Giving Circle to receive a portion of single issue sales of the magazine in which this story first appeared. Root Quarterly will donate 20% of the proceeds from the copies of Vol. 1 // Issue Three: SPHERES that sell between October 26th, 2020 and December 31st, 2020.