Owners of Bawadi Mediterranean Grill charge landlord is unfairly forcing them out
 |
| Sara and Khalid Mekki in their restaurant with three of their four children. |
Khalid and Sara Mekki, the owners of Bawadi Mediterranean Grill & Sweets Café in Bailey’s Crossroads, say they’re being treated unfairly by their landlord, Adrienne Dominguez, and her company, Alta Enterprises 1 LLC, by forcing them out and refusing to renew their lease.
A petition circulated by the Mekkis and signed by 700 customers and friends, says they have been asking Dominguez to approve a new lease for a year to no avail and say she has never given them a reason for denying their request or explained why she wants Bawadi out.
 |
| A sign in front of Bawadi. |
Bawadi, at 5916 Leesburg Pike, offers halal Middle Eastern food made with fresh, natural ingredients, homemade baklawa, and a lunch buffet.
When the Mekkis opened their restaurant four years ago, they assumed the remaining four years of the previous tenant’s five-year lease. That lease has expired, and on Feb. 8, Dominguez’s attorney sent the Mekkis a letter stating they had to leave the shopping center by March 31.
Bawadi is still open, and Khalid says he is hoping to negotiate with Alta Enterprises to stay at least until they can find another location. He even said he would pay a year’s rent in advance but Dominguez’ attorney declined that offer without giving a reason.
If the restaurant closes, 10 employees will lose their jobs, Khalid says. And the Mekkis would lose the $370,000 they put into the restaurant, including an $85,000 bread oven.
The Mekkis never missed a rent payment, Khalid says, although in the beginning, before the restaurant started turning a profit, their payments were a little late, but that didn’t seem to be a problem.
When their business partner backed out, Khalid quit his job as an engineer at AstraZeneca, they sold their house, he drained his 401(k), and they sold land they owned in Jordan to keep the restaurant going.
“Slowly things worked out,” he says, and Bawadi, which means “oasis” in Arabic, is now doing very well. “Forcing us out doesn’t make any sense.”
Dominguez’ attorney did not respond to a request to comment.
 |
| Khalid Badawi with some of the bread made in-house. |
The air conditioning was broken all summer last year, and the temperature rose to 101 degrees in the kitchen during Ramadan, Khalid says. When the landlord refused to fix it, the Mekki’s brought in seven portable AC units on their own.
If they lose their right to stay in the shopping center, Khalid would like to reopen in a new location, but isn’t sure he will be able to, noting it would take a year to get the necessary permits.
Khalid says Dominguez even started advertising the place in January, weeks before she told the Mekkis they had to leave.
“She never appreciated what we did,” says Sara Mekki. “She won’t even give us a month to find a new place. She enjoys seeing people suffer.”
“The minute I hired a lawyer, she turned into a monster,” Khalid added. She won’t answer emails or return phone calls.
Greg Friedman, the Mekkis attorney, said they should at least be allowed to stay on a month-to-month basis until they can find a new location.
Dominguez told the Mekkis they could stay until the end of April if they paid her attorney’s fees for the past few months, which amounts to $8,000, Friedman says. That is not acceptable, he says; they shouldn’t be charged for any of her legal fees that were incurred before March 31.
“This is a guy who is an immigrant who bought a business and expected the landlord was going to give him more time and would be able to justify his investment,” Friedman says. “The business is doing well. He works hard and has a community following and repeat customers. Now he is in a situation where he is being forced out.”
“Small businesses like Bawadi Mediterranean Grill are part of the backbone of this neighborhood,” Sara Mekki says. “We established this family restaurant to not only support us and our employees’ families but also to contribute to our community by helping local food drives and events.”
This is a shame. The owners are very kind people and the restaurant has great food and is always busy. I have been both a customer to them and delivered food for them through UberEats. I hope the find a way to stay open or are able to find a new location.
This is the type of landlord abuse that needs to be reported. Maybe to a local TV show? A good tenant for four years and no explanation? That's not only a bad landlord but a pretty sorry excuse for a human being.
"The Mekkis never missed a rent payment, Khalid says, although in the beginning, before the restaurant started turning a profit, their payments were a little late"
I think everyone should support the right of the owner of the restaurant to be informed early enough to start looking for a new location.
No one can deny how good and healthy the food that the restaurant serve.I think we should protect small business es to grow and protect them from being affected by irresponsible decisions from landlords. The restaurant is also serving the community by giving free daily bread to the poor and by providing decent jobs to it's staff.
Wish all the best for this restaurant
This is very sad. It seems the law does not protect the tenants…..The law should protect both tenant and landlord.
The landlord has no rights to deny lease extension without any valid reason. However, the landlord should be entitled to negotiate a new lease rate based on market value.
How unfair! You don't throw people out without giving them a reason why. I hope the owners are able to reopen somewhere else. I'd say I hope they can stay where they are but their landlord is a slumlord (see the part about the broken a/c) and they and their employees deserve better. I wish them luck.
"Greg Friedman, the Mekki’s attorney, said they should at least be allowed to stay on a month-to-month basis until they can find a new location."
You would think a lawyer would have told them before taking their money that they don't have a case. A lease is a contract for a specified period of time. Go in knowing that all you have is the period of time agreed to in the contract. Know that years from now, a more lucrative renter could appear, or the landlord wants to get people out so they can sell the property. Flip side, if the grill wanted to move out after their lease for whatever reason, do you think for one second they'd let the landlord pull the "you need to give me more time to find a new renter" argument? No, they'd laugh and move on. Here is a good tip, if your landlord isn't making any serious efforts to extended your lease, they're probably not going to extend it, at least for terms you'd like. The time to look for a new places was like 6 months ago. They should have contacted their landlord and told them that they need to get a new lease, or they'll have to go look at other places.
Exactly. Just like an apartment, if you sign a 1 year lease, don't be surprised if you have to move after a year. There are all sorts of reasons the LL may not want to renew them and it's no one's business. It's their property.
Maybe Supervisor Gross can mediate and help this come to a good solution.
Everyone should boycott all of the businesses in that shopping center. Give the landlord some pain where it hurts, his wallet. Maybe the wicked witch of the west will drop a house on the landlord's head. We certainly have the winds today to do it.
the landlord doesn't take a % of sales from businesses, that only hurts the businesses, not the landlord.
LOL LOL
Wow. Really? They had 4 years notice! It was a 4 year lease. I doubt that there was anything in the lease that 'guaranteed' anything more than 4 years. There are TWO sides to every story folks. You are only hearing one of them. Please don't be so rough on the landlord who has chosen NOT to air dirty laundry in public. The landlord AND the tenant know what is going on but the tenant is only telling you what they want you to hear.
Bottom line …. a contract is a contract. They signed it showing that they agreed to it.
I've been on both sides of these types of transactions. I am speaking from experience.
Maybe this has something to do with Halalco moving in right next door at 5914. Maybe they arranged to take over multiple units, giving the landlord a larger and more stable tenant.
As a landlord, I don't really see anything wrong here. Their lease is up and the landlord is choosing not to renew for whatever reason. Most businesses start lease renegotiation in the last year of the lease so that, should the negotiations go south, they have a good amount of time to look for another place.
10 employees losing their jobs is definitely not what any society wants, but there's two sides to every story… even if the other side doesn't want to (or have to) share it.
I totally agreed that there is always two sides of the story and people like to act as a victim mentality..
There is no landlord in the world will kick the talent out without any reasons. Actullay, it will be easier to the landlord to renew the lease to ex. tenant without looking for new one if the ex. tannat deserves to be kept.