Samesa

Samesa is run by chef/owners Max and Eli Sussman. Max was previously the chef of Roberta's and Eli was the chef of Mile End Deli.

Samesa began in NY, mostly because we missed the food that we had grown up with in Southeast Michigan. This part of Michigan has a large population of immigrants from the Middle East and their food and restaurants are everywhere. To us, a shawarma was as common as a slice of pizza or a bagel is in NYC. And while there are shawarma spots in NY and ubiquitous Halal carts, as chefs we felt like we had something to contribute. At the simplest level, we love chicken shawarma and wanted to be able to not only eat it all the time, but also to share our version with as many people as possible.

Samesa sources responsibly, recycles, composts and is a sanctuary restaurant

In addition to our Williamsburg restaurant we operate seasonal pop-ups at Jacob Riis Beach in The Rockaways that are operational from Memorial Day-Labor Day.