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When Guy Fieri Saved a Syrian Restaurant in Tennessee
Before Guy Fieri started saving restaurants hit by the pandemic, he saved a Syrian restaurant on the brink of collapse
Riyad Alkasem was desperate.
It was 2010, and his restaurant was on the brink of closure, and with it, his dream. Riyad had arrived in America 20 years earlier, pulled from his home in Raqqa, Syria, by the promise of American democracy. Here, he’d built a family and a home, and in 2007, he’d opened a restaurant in Hendersonville, Tennessee, cooking for Southern palates the food his Syrian grandmother used to make. He called it Café Rakka, and he viewed it as a kind of bet. On himself, sure, but also on the limits of human openness and curiosity. His strategy was built on a simple idea. Anywhere on this planet, on any street corner or in any strip mall, you can find people who want food to transport them to undiscovered worlds. By giving people a plate, Riyad believed, he could take them with him to the Syrian desert. Here in Tennessee he would continue the work of his ancestors, providing sustenance for strangers as an invitation to build a common home.
But now that dream was about to crumble. The economy had plunged into recession, entering the worst period for restaurants to that point in modern history. (Though with the Covid-19 pandemic, conditions would get even worse a decade later.) Riyad had built up a base of loyal customers, but it wasn’t enough. One Friday, he gathered his staff and told them he didn’t know if he could continue to pay them. He took a walk with his wife that night by the lake near their home, and she told him, “You are not a failure.” Riyad nodded and tried to believe this was true.
A few days later, around noon, the phone rang. It was a producer from the Food Network. He wanted to talk about coming to Tennessee.
The trucks arrived early one morning in April 2010, parking in the lot and unloading cameras and mics. Riyad had never seen anything like it. So many people, each one affixed to his or her own piece of impossibly expensive equipment. So much energy so early in the morning, and there, emerging from a limo, was the man around whom the entire system seemed to orbit. He walked straight toward Riyad and…
