By Chloe Baker, Senior Opinions Editor
On 29th Street and 6th Avenue lies a restaurant that represents a whole lot more than just the food it serves. Taboonia, a Druze restaurant which recently became Kosher under the supervision of the International Kosher Council (IKC), exemplifies the intersection of food, connection, trauma, heroism and new beginnings, served with a side of hummus and a delicious cup of chai tea.
Taboonia was opened by Raif Rashed, who is originally from the Druze village of Usfiya in Northern Israel. An engineer by profession, Rashed moved to New Jersey in 2019 to pursue a job at an Israeli manufacturing company. During October 2023, he was home in Israel visiting family and planned to go back to America, but decided to extend his stay; he and his brother Radda, the owner of Taboonia in Israel, went to work as food vendors at the Nova music festival on October 7.
At 6:29 AM, when the first Hamas missiles were fired and terrorists came down from the sky in paragliders, Rashed and his brother were separated amidst the chaos, but ultimately both survived. That day changed the course of Rashed’s life. “I have been in a crisis for a year,” Rashed told the YU Observer in an interview at his restaurant.
Rashed’s passport was stolen during the attack, and he was stuck in Israel for the months following. During this time, he found comfort in cooking traditional Druze dishes. Almost one year later, on October 6, 2024, Rashed established the American outpost of Taboonia. Within a month he met the man who would become his business partner, Ray Radwan, a Druze man from New Jersey whose family is from Lebanon. “I don’t know how it happened, but it happened,” Rashed told the YU Observer. “There is a reason for everything.”
Taboonia in the U.S. started small, with Rashed selling food in the Grand Bazaar on the Upper West Side. This, Rashed told the YU Observer, “was a hit.” Eventually, in February 2025, a brick and mortar storefront opened in Midtown Manhattan.
Rashed described his restaurant as a place where there are “so many people,” adding, “We have Druze, Jews, Syrians and Lebanese people all here.” He highlighted the unique power of food, saying that “when you eat something, you always remember it. People come here and eat the food and say it takes them back home.”
Rashed explained that food in Druze culture is a tool to connect people. “We [Druze] like to make connections and gatherings between people,” he told the YU Observer. “Especially with za’atar, a special dish that we use to gather people.”
The Druze are a small minority in the Middle East, consisting of only around one to one and a half million people. They are mainly located in Lebanon and Syria, but there is a sizable community in Israel, where they are known for their loyalty to the state.
“Druze people are very accepting of others. It doesn’t matter what country they originated from, they love the land they are from,” Radwan, Rashed’s business partner, told the YU Observer.
Rashed speaks Hebrew, Arabic and English, but he said his strongest language is Hebrew. “I can speak with anyone in the Middle East,” he said. Growing up around many Jewish people from a young age, it was important for him to make the restaurant kosher.
“Kosher everyone can eat. If it’s not Kosher, not everyone can eat.” Rashed explained that all of the ingredients used in the food at Taboonia are from Israel, specifically the “olives and za’atar,” and the food served at Taboonia in Midtown is the same food that was served at the Taboonia food stand at the Nova festival on that dreadful day: bourekas, pita, labneh, manakish, mujadarra and more. The food is vegetarian, Rashed said, and “some items are vegan, and the food is healthy.”
For Rashed, sharing the food of his culture and heritage with New Yorkers is “a dream.” But the restaurant is not just about the cuisine – it’s a means for him to “make connections.”
These connections, with people of many cultures sitting together, complemented by the sound of Middle Eastern music and the smell of pita, are only part of what makes Taboonia special for Rashed. For him, the establishment symbolizes his triumph.
“For me it’s a win-win,” said Rashed. “Every day I am here is like another victory day.”
Photo Caption: Taboonia
Photo Credit: Chloe Baker / the YU Observer