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| Star East CaféCategorized as Restaurant Reviews from Portland Magazine reviewed by Diane Hudson feb/march 2009  Desperately seeking recession-friendly places, we happened upon the Star East Café, in the heart of Woodford’s Corner.
Pleasant and affable as is his cuisine, owner Saad Albeshir has just purchased and renovated this building, designing a warm inviting space. An electrician by trade in his native Iraq, Albeshir, who has other real estate interests, always wanted to own and run a place like this. Noting that “there are no other Arabic restaurants in Maine,” he is excited to bring the unique tastes to an increasing, and loyal, clientele. A big reason for his success, besides the flavorful food, is Albeshir’s whole-hearted commitment to promoting a healthy way of eating that is affordable for all. Imagine, for example, a generous serving of lamb kabob consisting of seven or eight good-sized chunks of juicy meat, grilled onion, green pepper, and two halves of nicely grilled tomato for $8.89. Ditto for the dolmades, rolled grape leaves stuffed with super basmati rice, raisins, beef or vegetables. Nine of these sweet, moist delicacies surround a mound of velvety hummus with a pungent olive in the center. Pretty, and pleasing, also only $8.89!  For us, the shining star in StarEast’s sparkling firmament is the flat bread. A cross between a large inflated pita and an Indian poori, but with more substance and less oil than the poori, the bread alone will keep you coming back for more. Get here early, however. Our try for a to-go was a no-go; we’d just been served the last.
All of the soups are served with this amazing Arabic bread, hot from the oven. We loved the tasty chicken and vegetable soup, with lots of chicken and a good broth ($5.99), and can’t wait to try the lamb stew ($5.99) and the okra soup ($4.99). We ordered koba, fresh ground beef and onion rolled in a potato, rice, and seasoning mixture thats generally served sandwich-style, inside Arabic bread with salad on top. As no alcohol is served, and is not allowed in the café, we treated ourselves to tea with cardamom. Coffee by Design coffees, hot lemonade, and numerous juices are available. Live music and even occasional dancing add energy here to complete this refreshing and affordable experience of the Middle East. For updates on the entertainment, visit www.stareastsaad.com StarEast a bit of American, whole lot of (excellent) Arabic
From staff reports 
[GO Entertainment Weekly 3/27/08]
At StarEast Cafe in Portland, you can get freshly-baked Arabic bread with every order.
"We cook our bread right here in the oven while people are waiting for their order," said owner Saad Albeshir. "It just comes straight from the oven to the people's plate." The flatbread-style bread is baked in a brick oven, and it comes out thin, light and crispy. It is very good.
Albeshir said he wanted StarEast, which opened a few months ago near the intersection of Forest and Deering avenues, to be a combination coffee shop and restaurant. "It's a large space, so it's good for the community to get together, and for students," he said.
The menu consists of both American and Arabic cuisine, with a definite focus on the latter.
The American influence can be seen most strongly in the breakfast menu, which is available all day, and features eggs, pancakes, French toast and omelettes. There's also Arabic bread with homemade cream cheese and honey.
The rest of the menu is devoted to lunch and dinner offerings. Some are available every day, while the "daily specials" change from day to day.
Anchoring the everyday offerings are two sandwiches -- one with beef and one with falafel -- and two different types of kabobs. The sandwiches cost $5.99; the kabobs $8.89.
The specials include soups, such as Arabic bean soup, okra soup and potato soup, for $4.99. There's also grilled and fried chicken, both $8.89, and, for $7.49, Dol Made: grape leaves wrapped around a mixture of rice, raisins and beef.
For beverages, there's Arabic tea, hot lemonade and coffee from Coffee by Design of Portland. There are also cakes and pastries, including baklava, from Beryl's Pastries of Richmond.
When I recently visited StarEast for lunch, I ordered a koba sandwich. Koba is made of seasoned ground beef and onion breaded in rice and potato.The koba, wrapped in warm Arabic bread, was crunchy on the outside and filled with piping hot beef. The sandwich was topped with a salad and hummus, providing a cool contrast to the meat.
Everything was very fresh. Albeshir said the restaurant uses lots of local and high quality ingredients.
This spring, Albeshir is considering extending his hours until 10 p.m.
A handwritten sign outside the store reads, "You don't know it until you've tried it."
With the variety of dishes available at StarEast, it's definitely worth a try.
The Features staff of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram anonymously samples meals for about $7.
A recent review in the Portland Phoenix... StarEast Café brings back a taste of the Middle East By BRIAN DUFF | February 20, 2008 |  Recommended By 7 People Great books and films about contemporary Iraq (like Prince of the Marshes and My Country, My Country) uncover admirable and encouraging details but ultimately leave you with a sense of foreboding about the country's future. The experience at StarEast Café, a new Arabic restaurant and coffee place with an Iraqi owner, is analogous. Luckily, what is most encouraging about StarEast is what is most important: the food, which is generally well-crafted and impressively fresh for a place that so far seems very slow at dinner. But the big empty-seeming space, the location, and the somewhat awkward amalgam of coffee shop and restaurant seem like tough obstacles to overcome. The folks at StarEast wisely keep things informal, even during dinner service. On the stereo Arabic music alternates with soft-rock over the hum of the beverage cooler. You order at the counter from one of those slightly nonplussed ethnic-restaurant white girls so distinctive to Maine, wearing an old-school “My Name Is” nametag. Just about anything you ask for will come with or on the terrific flatbread. Served warm and fresh from the oven, it is puffy and light — less doughy than naan — with a whisper of crispiness on the side that had been pressed against the oven wall. You can get it with cream cheese and honey for what I imagine to be a very good breakfast. For my morning meal at StarEast the bread came with a soft, cheesy omelet crumbling with diced vegetables. In the evening we tried the flatbread with a creamy hummus with strong flavors of sesame. It came with a bright, fresh tabuleh that offered much more parsley than bulgar and a zing of lemon. The flatbread also came wrapped around the koba sandwich. The tender balls of beef, onion, potato, and rice, wrapped together with tomato, cucumbers, and hummus, were a mild but interesting alternative to falafel, which is also on the menu. Moderation in the use of spices, so as not to overwhelm the flavors of their other ingredients, was the rule at StarEast. This was evident in the kofta kabob. More beef than lamb, it was a bit like a juicy Arabic meatloaf sprinkled with paprika. We also tried kabobs of lamb and chicken. While meat on a stick is too often charred into oblivion, at StarEast the large chunks of meat and vegetables were tender, attractively browned, and cooked with restraint. If anything the chicken could have used a touch more heat. The kabobs came with more of the terrific tabuleh. Lamb Biryani, with the pleasant fragrance of cardamom, featured fluffy tender rice and tender meat, but desiccated vegetables. It was a bit disappointing, as was a chocolate cake for dessert. But overall the experience at StarEast was more a pleasantly odd surprise than a disappointment. If the space were busier some of its quirks would become less glaring. On a slow Saturday evening it seemed like a great place to bring kids. One youngster got pancakes (breakfast is available all day) while his parents tried something more interesting — and their dishes were mild enough for their kids to enjoy sampling. He and his brother danced to Middle Eastern music and eventually got some of the adults involved. The big, quiet front room would be a good haunt for USM students. They could bring their books, milk their coffees (Coffee By Design drip, not Arabic), and get a few affordable meals to fuel a long study session. The next year will determine whether the US adventure in Iraq will be a regrettable learning experience for future college students to study, or a long-term occupation to which their peers will deploy. It will be a telling year for StarEast Café as well — and in the short term the place could use, and deserves, a temporary surge.
Brian Duff can be reached at bduff@une.edu.
Stareast Café | 646 Forest Ave (at Woodfords Corner), Portland | 207.775.0013 | Mon-Sat 8 am-7 pm; Sun 8 am-5 pm | Visa/MC
A Review From Maine Biz
New Ventures Arabian bitesA conversation with Saad Albeshir, owner of Stareast Cafe in PortlandBy SARA DONNELLY Mainebiz Managing Editor 11/17/08
Founded: January 2008
Employees: 5
Start-up costs: $100,000
Projected revenue, year one:
Projected revenue, year two:
Contact: 775-0013
646 Forest Ave, Portland 04101 How do you describe the business?
It is a café. People come here and have coffee. I do have a full menu. We serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. Everything I did here, I buy this building and this is my design. If you want I can show you a picture, and it is indescribable. I do design, I do construction work. I bought this building and it took me six months [to refurbish it]. When I bought this building, it was just the studs. No ceiling, no floor, no bathroom, no plumbing, no electric, no kitchen, nothing. It was just empty, vacant. It used to be a bar. Why did you decide to open Stareast?
I always like to have [a] café, like a mixed coffee shop and restaurant. Like, a comfortable, relaxed place. I like to bring different ideas for food. In Maine, we don’t have any Arabic restaurant. And I want to bring the health food, for example. It bothers me when I go to restaurants, or grocery stores, for example, and they’re selling tahini, and they call it Middle Eastern, and that’s not the tahini we are used to, you know what I’m saying? There’s a few places selling falafel but that’s not the Arabic falafel we know. What is your professional background?
I used to be an electrician in my country back home. I am from Iraq. My father used to do construction and that is why I have always been in development. Have you ever started a business before?
Oh yes. I own real estate. I manage apartment buildings. How did you finance the launch of the business?
Well, I have done projects before like this, not restaurants, but myself fixing [buildings]. Some of it was [my money] and some of it, I deal with investments. Commercial investors, I’ve done business with them. I am a handyman so I can avoid a lot of expense. I hired contractors to work on this spot, under my supervision, and I guide them to what they should do. Some of the restaurant, for example, my kitchen, some of the stuff I create. I design a place in which I can put the oven, I’m looking for a shish kebab right now. I have to make it traditional, I have to make it Arabic. Some of the stuff I buy used. Equipment, machines — kitchen equipment, stuff like this — it didn’t cost much, not much. What is the biggest challenge for Stareast?
The biggest challenge for this business is people not familiar with Arabic food. They are afraid, some people, to try it, but when they get into it and try it, they come back. So how do you get people to try your food? How do you get those people through the door?
I give samples to people. I do not really advertise much. That’s why the business, I expect it to grow slow. People like that [motions to customers], they come and they enjoy the food, they bring their friends. Sometimes I give samples for customers [who] come just for the coffee, [they say] ‘Oh, this is such wonderful food!’ And they come back again and they try the food. Pretty much most of my customers, every one of them, most of them they come back again, again, again. And that is why I am so happy with the way business is going. How do you advertise the café?
I had a review by the Portland Press Herald, and also I did some little advertising two months ago in the Portland Press Herald, one [ad]. And some of my customers did fliers and passed fliers downtown and since then I have not done any. Why not?
Because I don’t feel I am really, really desperate. I think the way the business is going now is good. I have my customers right now and I know them and they know me. When it gets really, really low then I will do some more advertising. You said that you were an electrician before and you are also a real estate developer, was it difficult to open a café? It is a totally different kind of business.
Yes, I agree with you. It was not difficult actually for me because I was studying it very well before I got into it. I have friends who own restaurants, [and I studied] through the Internet, and I am very connected to this community of Portland and I know the details, what’s going on, all that stuff. So I did not really do it with blind eyes. Interview by Sara Donnelly | |
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