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Many local restaurants have a history or a good story, but few can match Damascus Gate. The location of the new South Side restaurant was secured by Syrian expatriate Ahmad Nasef, a Milwaukee physician who traveled to Turkey to aid refugees from Syria’s destructive civil war. Among those refugees are Damascus Gate’s owners—Abdul Abadeh and his wife, Nawal Mutlak.
The menu is familiar to anyone who has explored the cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Near East. Like music, food has traveled easily through the region, crossing the artificial barriers of politics and the even harder boundaries of language and religion. Damascus Gate serves “mixed grill” entrees ($11.99) with skewers of red meat and chicken; falafel or kefta (ground meat) kabob sandwiches ($6.99/$7.99); cheese or spinach pie by the slice ($1.99); steaming bowls of lentil soup ($3.99); yalanji (rice-stuffed grape leaves) ($4.99); and tangy tabbouleh ($5.99), a salad made from parsley and cracked wheat. At Damascus Gate, vegetarians will have no lack of options, but meat-eaters will also be pleased.
A good way to sample the menu is provided by the mixed appetizer platter ($16.99), an array of selections ample enough to feed two. It includes hummus, falafel, baba ganouj, tabbouleh and moussaka—grilled eggplant diced and served in seasoned tomato sauce (unlike the layered, lasagna-like version familiarly presented in Greek restaurants). For $2 more, you can add kibbeh—four large meat-and-onion-filled footballs of bulgar wheat. The kibbeh portion is almost substantial enough for a meal all its own. Lunch or dinner can be topped off with a bowl of muhalaya (rice pudding) ($1.99) and a demitasse of Turkish coffee ($2.49) for a condensed jolt of mind-awakening caffeine.
The interior of Damascus Gate is cavernous, but the walls are painted in a welcoming sunlight color and hung with photographs of Syria’s capital city in much happier days. Damascus was a middle-class metropolis with a centuries-long architectural legacy and all modern conveniences. The photos show quiet courtyards and streets busy with cars and trolleys, gardens with fountains and Muslim and Christian holy places.
Damascus Gate is one more reason to visit Historic Mitchell Street, one of the main arteries of Milwaukee’s South Side.
