Washington, D.C., restaurant operator Lebanese Taverna will open three new 'LebTav' fast-casual units within the next two years — one of them inside the Pentagon in late 2020.
The Lebanese Taverna Group, founded in 1979, currently owns and operates 12 restaurants around the Washington, D.C., metro area. Numerous media outlets and publications have lauded the concept for having the region’s best Mediterranean cuisine. The group is family owned and operated.
Of late, Lebanese Taverna has evolved to adapt to customers’ changing tastes and needs, says Stephen Combs, the principal at real estate firm KLNB who represented Lebanese Taverna in all three deals. “The new LebTav brand and fast-casual concept is a response to these changing consumer trends,” Combs said in a press release. “For savvy business owners like Lebanese Taverna, that meant launching a new concept in target markets around the region. From a real estate perspective, it was critical to the business plan that we work with the owners to find unique spaces that reduced the restaurant group’s footprint and aligned with the fast-casual atmosphere they wanted to cultivate.”
Last year Lebanese Taverna rebranded three of its Maryland units — in Annapolis, Rockville and downtown Silver Spring — to Lebanese Taverna cafés. In each case, KLNB helped Lebanese Taverna find and relocate to another space within the existing shopping center, thus helping to reduce square footage.
“We want to grow and change with our customers,” said Grace Abi-Najm Shea, the company's executive vice president, in a press release. “LebTav is a refinement of what has been successful in the past. We took the greatest hits of our traditional menu and utilized smaller retail space, paired with a fresh design, to cater to our busy customers.”
By Brannon Boswell
Executive Editor, Commerce + Communities Today
