Beloved Mamnoon restaurant to close Capitol Hill location after 13 years

Mamnoon, the 13-year-old Levantine restaurant in Seattle, announced it will have its last day of service on Sept. 14 at its Capitol Hill location, but the Mamnoon Street restaurant in Belltown will remain open.

Owners Racha and Wassef Haroun reported that the restaurant’s sales at the Capitol Hill location dropped by 50% since 2023, according to The Seattle Times.

Wassef pointed to the increasing availability of other restaurant options in Seattle, and a growing perception of Seattle being a dangerous city may have played a role in Mamnoon’s drop in business.

Mamnoon restaurant to close Capitol Hill location

In Arabic, Farsi, and Urdu, “Mamnoon” means “thankful,” and the Harouns found the name fitting for their farewell to Seattle.

“It couldn’t be a more apt name for the reception and community engagement we’ve had in the last 13 years,” the Harouns wrote. “We’ve basked in and shared our gratitude with you in the best way we know how.”

Racha and Wassef had a vision to bring their Syrian and Lebanese culture and cuisine to the people of Seattle amid the war in Syria. They could not travel back home during the war and said, “Mamnoon became our new dream home … that we couldn’t wait to welcome you into.” Throughout Mamnoon’s stay in Seattle, the Harouns also made an effort to employ Syrian refugees at their restaurant.

Wassef immigrated to the Pacific Northwest and worked at Microsoft for 11 years, and later worked in France and Dubai. After that, he and Racha decided to venture into the restaurant business and founded Mamnoon with a unique development process.

Over the course of six months, they worked through trial and error to build Mamnoon. Other family members and friends helped with their dream, including Wassef’s mother, Wassilah, Racha’s mother, Ferechteh Barazi, Lebanese cookbook author and food historian Barbara Massad, and chef Garrett Melkonian.

The initial goal was to teach Melkonian how to cook Middle Eastern food, but Racha and Wassef soon realized it was best to communicate the palate of the cuisine instead of the individual recipe.

“Very beneficial, even though we probably — as they say in the tech world — left money on the table,” Haroun said, according to The Seattle Times. “We emphasized learning, observing, and understanding way more than trying to optimize,”

The Harouns mentioned that the story of Mamnoon is simply moving onto a new chapter; it is not ending. Mamnoon products are sold at more than 100 markets in Seattle, as well as across Washington and Oregon. The store-bought offerings were created during the pandemic as a way to “extend our food to your table.”

“With eternal love from the Haroun family, mamnoon to you Seattle!” the Harouns wrote. “Keep an eye out for some of our old friends joining us to cook up some special dishes in our final days, we will see you soon.”

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