A banner hangs in front of the future home of Coco’s Lebanese Cafe, a new restaurant set to occupy the back area of Teatro Scarpino in Fayetteville.
Staff photo
If you like Lebanese food, or if you’ve never tried it and you like tasting new things, get ready to be happy. Coco’s Lebanese Cafe will soon open off Dickson Street in Fayetteville.
The new restaurant, located in the back room of Teatro Scarpino at 329-A North West Ave., will focus on traditional Lebanese dishes passed down for generations to owner Genoveva Ancer from her family.
Interior of Coco’s Lebanese Cafe
Staff photo
Coco’s will serve several Middle Eastern food staples including humus, tabbouleh, kibbeh, baba ganoush, kebabs, baklava, and of course, Turkish coffee. Ancer said what will set the restaurant apart is Coco’s commitment to fresh, organic ingredients in dishes that are made to order.
“We hope people will come to us with a little bit of time,” she said. “Everything here will be made by hand, and made from scratch. It takes longer, but it’s worth it.”
Ancer said that opening a restaurant has been a dream of hers, and though she’s never owned one before, she spent plenty of time working in the food industry during her college years.
She’s also gained valuable experience in other ways.
“Having to cook for my large family is like cooking in a restaurant,” she said.
Coco’s will be open Monday through Friday for breakfast and lunch, though additional hours could be added if things go well.
Ancer hasn’t set an official opening date yet, but a soft opening is planned for friends and family on Saturday (Oct. 6). Ancer said Coco’s will likely be open soon after that.
Holy Guacamole, this sounds (& looks) great!
No mention of Falafel.
Still waiting for that big one in the sky to arrive:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falafel_%28film%29
Welcome Coco’s. I will be looking for Falafel on the menu too. Either way I look forward to trying this new restaurant in town.
I LOVE Lebanese food! I’m putting in my request for the menu to include shawarma, soups (especially lemon chicken), and Lebanese breakfast items!
Interested, but without weekend hours, I’ll probably never make it. Also, being open during the weekdays for breakfast and lunch only… I do hope it doesn’t take too long to cook the food, since those times are when people do not often have time to wait for a meal.
This sounds great. I hope they will make their own pita bread instead of serving stale cardboard like another Dickson Street restaurant.
With the recent construction near this location (bombed out buildings), and that crazy barber not far away, this is going to be just like being in Beirut!!! All that is missing is bullet holes in the walls, I can’t wait!
i don’t care what their sexual persuasion is — if it’s good food, i’ll try it!
oh…”Lebanese.” totally misread that the first time. nevermind.
Please ignore the insensitive remarks made here, Genoveva, especially about the lovely world-class city of Beirut. Fayetteville should hope to be 1% as nice as Beirut even at her most distressed and beleaguered. Rest assured, so many people have waited a very long time for a restaurant like yours, hardly daring to hope that organic ingredients would be part of the presentation. We so look forward to Coco’s!
But I MISS Beirut for the very reason you mentioned (world class city!)!
Also, what gives with your hatred of Fayetteville? HMMM? I dare say Fayetteville is much more FUNKY than Beirut! Are you seriously saying that when Beirut was suffering through civil war/occupied by Syrian forces/having her airport bombed by Israel that Fayetteville wasn’t 1% as nice? I thought my Hezbollah brothers were crazy, but you…you take the cake (baklava?)!
Lets put aside the differences between Faytown and the Lebanon and celebrate a new culinary dining experience opening up. Lived in both…. great towns…. but the story here is about the food! Im stoked!
great news! i am very excited to try this new place. now we just need an indian restaurant.
Lol I did the same thing five by five, did a double take
Good deal! Anyone know whats going on at the corner of Dickson and Block Ave.?
This place sounds like a a good idea at first but not when you think a little about it. Most importantly, the market is already saturated. I like really Mediterranean food. Thankfully, there are several great restaurants in this area that already cater to my craving. The best ones are Petra and Emelia’s, other good ones include Kosmos and Tangiers. I haven’t eaten at Pitas and I think there is another one in Bentonville. I’ve got to be the debbie downer and say they’re jumping in over their head. Opening a med cuisine within a 5 block radius of 3 other restaurants with nearly the same food is not a good idea unless you have money to burn. You need a niche to survive with any business. Our area is just too small for that kind of over saturation. Proof being the BBQ places that are constantly opening and shutting down around the city.
Other mistakes are the hours and self-proclaimed long wait time. Petra (their direct competition) survives having those hours because the food is amazing, it comes out fast, and the people who work there are great. Lunch places need to have a high turnover rate because most people need to go back to work. I’d like to try Coco’s but I won’t be able to because it’s not open on the weekends or nights. Those times are the busiest for most restaurants because that’s when most people can go out to eat. I’m thinking that they can’t be open during those times because of events at Scarpinos, but why not work together to have food for those events? It just seams like this idea was poorly thought out and I’d pick Petra any day over some new place with a bad business plan.
Comment removed. See our policy.
You’re both full of it. There’s no need to slam a business that none of us has been to yet. How ’bout we just wish them luck? Juvenile attacks on Petra don’t speak well of the writer either. I’d eat dog food every day if it was as tasty as the food being served at Petra. My family lives in the Middle East, and I’ve eaten at a fair number of Mediterranean style eateries around the world, and Petra’s hummus is the best I’ve had.
agreed. If ‘think about your market…’ was right then we’d be seeing lots of thai restaurants in the thai district closing down.
I cannot wait to try Coco’s!
If they serve sharwarma, I’ll be there. I haven’t had it since moving here from Austin over 8 years ago.
TEATRO SCARPINO welcomes COCOs into our building along with FAYETTECHILL! ……just to clarify….. we will continue to book and host events in the smaller West Room( for up to 50 people) or our entire space, which can host up to 300 .www.scarpino.com….we wish the best to all businesses in our community!
Fret, not, Coco’s. There may be some genuine mean-spiritedness here, but most of it is just the “as if Fayetteville needs you in order to be awesome”, run-of-the-mill, internet forum hazing du jour. That, and everybody wants to be considered hilarious.
Then there’s the legit, ‘WTF?’ questions. Open only for breakfast and lunch, and proclaiming a long wait time? I’m not hitting a place up for lunch if the owners are telling me before I set foot in the door their kitchen is slow.
Glutenfree
we understand you have plenty of time to wait around while you are not campaigning. not an option for the rest of the world.
Then again you are always campaigning even while you are waiting for food you pester other diners.
Wow….Sorry to burst your psychotic little bubble, but you don’t know me. Keep plucking that chicken, though. While we are discussing your fetish for claiming that I am THE Dan Coody, I’ll just add that I don’t find the most vitriolic Dan Coody detractors to be particularly sane online or in real life. Thanks for providing continued support for the hypothesis.
I am interested in a restaurant that cooks all items to order. If the food is good and reasonably priced they will get plenty of business regardless of the wait time. I imagine that if successful they will expand their hours.
So wait a minute, we’re allowed to call the barber next door “crazy” and insult the culturally and historically significant city of Beirut, but we can’t legitimately criticize Petra’s food quality and preparation?
I lived in the Middle East for 11 years and I don’t find Petra’s offerings authentic, fresh or tasty. With all the personal attacks being bandied about the Flyer on both commenters, local politicians, etc, I’m surprised that my comment was removed.
I do look forward to trying Coco’s food.
I shouldn’t have called him crazy, I apologize, but I didn’t insult Beirut! I love Beirut!
I look forward to trying Coco’s as well. Any word on the for realsies opening?
I just don’t like getting Gyro meat from a box full of pre-sliced meat labeled “Gyro Meat.” I mean why even bother with it? That’d be like if Rick’s Iron Skillet was getting boxes of Cisco pre-cooked bacon and reheating it in the microwave.
Pre-cooked bacon is a sin that should be eliminated from this world!
I’m not worried about the time it takes for food or the fact that there are other restaurants in town that offer similar cuisine. I happen to know the owner personally and trust me, this place is going to be wonderful. I wish them the best of luck.
I grew up in Fayetteville as someone of Middle Eastern descent and having lived aborad- I LOVE Funky Fayetteville, but we could still be Funkier!
I am disappointed to see comments tearing apart a business plan without being certain or aware of their reasons. This is obviously a Locally Owned business- we should support them, and HELP them grow into what we want – THIS is keeping Fayetteville Funky!
Their awesome neighbor Arsaga’s seems to be doing great and they also make-to-order and often wait time, and it’s packed! Petra has limited hours, and people adapted.
With that said- if you know real Middle Eastern Cuisine, you would know that grape-leaves DO NOT come from a can… but they are also very tedious to make, so no judgement.
If I can say one thing about my Middle Eastern Heritage, is that we pride ourselves on traditional home meals which are always a center for reunion and are hand made fresh!
This is what Coco’s seems to be aiming for- not a long wait time, but an expectation of every dish being prepared with care and detail.
I am SUPER excited to have REAL Wara’enab, Malfouf, KIBBEH, Ftayer, Babaghanouj, Manaeesh, Lebne, hand made Tabouleh, Kafta and I could go on for days!
I wish you all the best Coco’s! Remember those who want to appreciate you will, and the rest don’t matter!
Forget restaurants, I want to eat at YOUR house.
The admittedly few times I’ve been to Arsaga’s yeah they’ve been packed; mostly by college students and retirees rather than people working for a living.
Michael, do you suggest the money spent by students and retirees is not as beneficial to Arsaga’s as purchases made by people working for a living? I don’t understand your point.
Habibi, great post. I can’t wait to try Coco’s.
A person should support a business because they like it, not just because it’s local. There are a lot of crappy local and corporate businesses around here.
Austin isn’t even Austin anymore. More like Dallas.
COCOs LEBANESE CAFE is NOW OFFICIALLY OPEN!! Mon.- Fri. 11am- 4pm…enter through the parking lot where Arsagas is located…..in the back of the Teatro Scarpino building(and where FAYETTECHILLs base camp is) just off the trail and come taste for yourself!!!
BTW this beautiful room is available to rent for private parties!!!
So I am happy to say Coco’s has been met my expectations!
There is absolutely no place in the area that serves the same dishes they have- especially cuisine specialties of Kibbeh and Malfouf Mishy! The freshest tabouleh and by far the BEST baklava I have ever had! I have been in about 4 times now, the service is great! The music is traditional, the space lovely. There are speedy options for those in a rush, but honestly, this place is like a retreat. I made a connection with the owner who chatted and asked for my opinion and constructive criticism. The seem to really want to cater to the community.
I will be a regular there, and I hope that some of you on this comment chat actually give it a try before judging them. You might be surprised to learn a different side of a cuisine you believe to already have knowledge about…….