Tabboule Owners Say it will Remain Open Despite Chef's Contrary Statement

[Editor's Note, July 14, 2011: Tabboule was sold in early 2011. The new owner, Mike Abdou, says he has changed the menu since this article went live. We'll be stopping by for a review soon.]

, a Lebanese restaurant favorably a couple of weeks ago, will remain open for the foreseeable future, a family member said in an email to the Patch reviewer.

At the time of the review, the chef had said the restaurant would be closing the following week. Efforts to contact the owner failed and we warned in the review that the restaurant might close.

On Tuesday, however, we received an email from a woman identifying herself as Christina Colette, the restaurant’s former manager, who said there were no plans for closing this month.

Said Colette, “The owners are George and Claudette Halwagy, Ridgewood-ites since my grandfather immigrated to this country about 40 years ago.”

Tabboule “has been family owned and operated since 2003 and prior to that the location belonged to the same owners as a local jewelry store," she said.

“Furthermore, Tabboule has no plans of closing yet. While business has become increasingly tough, as it has for most small business owners in these tough economic times, the restaurant is trucking along."

Regarding the response to Patch after hearing from the chef that it would be closed, Collete said that she spoke to the chef and "was short staffed that evening and didn't react as he should have."

"As you know, when business is challenging, staffs are always pushed to do more with less and our Chef has been wonderfully managing the front of the house and back of the house single-handedly for a while now."

Collete said that the chef "must have been stressed" and not "responding to the best of his ability."

An active member of the village's Chamber of Commerce, particularly with the donation of food to Ridgewood High School sporting events, the former restaurant manager said that the spot is definitely not planning on closing, but "as anyone would imagine, local support will always ensure success," she said. 

As noted in the earlier review, the restaurant has many fans that would have been sorry to hear that the Lebanese restaurnt was shutting its doors. Luckily, it's not.