For restaurateur and Open Sesame owner Ali Kobeissi, a certain hallmark is making him “feel quite old.” But ultimately, that very hallmark is a celebration: his Lebanese staple in Belmont Shore is about to surpass a quarter of a century of serving the community. It has also allowed the man to reflect on the beautiful life he has been able to build for himself through Lebanese cuisine—and how the need to slow life down is a part of what makes Open Sesame a success.
After all, Open Sesame is Ali’s secret recipe card from Lebanon to Long Beach. With eyes wide for a new journey in his life, he is ready to let his son and daughter take the reins on the restaurant’s two locations. All the while, he gets to enjoy the sweet slow life while the rest of us continue to revel in his hummus and tawook.
And come Wednesday, Aug. 28 at 11:30AM, he’ll be hosting a special ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate.
Open Sesame is really rooted in two things: family and a spice factory in Lebonon.
When Ali was 15, he was put to work, like many youth in Beirut. For him, he landed in a place that would become a definitive part of his future professional endeavors: Abido Spices. The spice factory, still in operation to this day, taught Ali two very important things. For one, just how much his mother’s cooking affected and uplifted him. And secondly, just how much Lebanon created in terms of culinary contributions.
Lines of cardamom and coriander. Sumac and spice blends for everything from tawook to shawarma to soujouk. He was surrounded by the very things his mother, his aunts, his grandmothers used to “keep the men at home as much as possible.
“In Lebanese culture, much of our life revolves around food,” Ali said. “As soon as my mom was finished with breakfast—you know, maybe a bowl of foul with pita—she immediately starts on lunch. Then come two o’clock, we eat and we discuss dinner… Food is at the center of it all. And with Open Sesame, it really is the women in my life that made it. These are recipes from them, handed down years across years.”
Of course, Ali loved food—and he especially loved the food of Lebanon. When arriving in New York City in the 1980s only to come to Buena Park in 1989, he certainly felt what many Lebanese people feel when in the States. The Lebanese food? Well, it just wasn’t that good. And stepping onto Belmont Shore by accident led him to crazy idea of Open Sesame.
Belmont Shore ‘felt like home, felt like Beirut’
“Open Sesame really began in 1989,” Ali said. “Honestly, I got a bit lost on my motorcycle and ended up in Belmont Shore. It was so walkable, businesses pushed together—it felt like home. It felt like Beirut.”
This combination of the high-inducing experience that is falling for Long Beach paired with a lack of solid Lebanese food proved a bit serendipitous. And this was even if Ali was unaware that the Belmont Shore was the place that introduced Long Beach to Lebanese food. George Mitri opened Sahara in the Shore in 1976, offering the city its first taste of falafel, shawarma, and baba ghanouj.
Come a decade after falling for the Shore, Ali would open Open Sesame. And though it wasn’t immediately apparent, he would begin an adventure that would continue for a quarter of a century and beyond, taking both Long Beach’s stomach and hearts to new places.
Open Sesame, like many great restaurants, took time to click with its Long Beach patronage.
Ali explained that Long Beach needed to be taught for the first ten years Open Sesame operated. They needed to learn the Lebanese food dictionary. They needed to learn how to eat it, how to combine things. And that endeavor worked out in our food culture’s favor: Teaching Lebanese tradition over bastardizing Ali’s culture gave Long Beach a food lexicon and cultural capital that it severely lacked.
“It was a constant discussion with the whole team,” Ali said. “Servers, managers: ‘No, we need to teach them how to eat our way—not the other way around.’ Because people wanted to put that in a sandwich or this over that… Many plates I would create had people in both the kitchen and front of house telling me, ‘That’s not going to work with customers.’ 25 years later, customers absolutely love how we serve our dishes.”
And when it all comes down to it: Open Sesame sticks with the traditional over the trending.
Grape leaves are still stuffed by hand, as are the falafel. Shawarma and tawook—recipes literally handed down to him by his mother and grandmothers—have never shifted their flavor profiles. All meat is prepared under the rules of halal. And their hummus—which went somewhat rogue when Ali, thanks to the influence of Mexican culture, created a spicy version in the early 2000s that was nearly impossible to find elsewhere—is still made entirely from scratch.
Enjoying the sweet slow life, trusting his team, and handing off the reins to his children
For Ali, there is a frank conversation he is having that should be heard by all restaurateurs. He created the business to eventually live a solid life—not let the business run his life.
“Time goes by quicker and quicker and I’ve learned to focus on slowing it down,” Ali said. That’s meant more traveling, more relaxing, and yes, more time away from the business—something he fully admits isn’t possible without his team.
“The majority of my employees have been with me for over a decade,” Ali said. “And that makes me proud. Jacquis [Salameh, Operations Director for Open Sesame]? She’s been with me for over 20 years. Open Sesame has really become her baby as much as it is mine… Without that team, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy life and take a step back. Without that team, I wouldn’t be able to watch my children grasp the business—which has really been a blessing to witness.”
Daughter Yassmina manages the West Hollywood location while his son Adam not only oversees Open Sesame Long Beach but might even have his sights on expanding south into Orange County.
“It’s not a question of whether there will be another 25 years but how the next 25 years will look,” Ali said. “I told both my children it’s really up to them. I will support them financially, I will be there. But my time is my time now—and that is something they will have to respect as they make Open Sesame.”
Open Sesame’s 25th anniversary will take place on Wednesday, Aug. 28, at 11:30AM at their Belmont Shore lcoation, which is located at 5215 E. 2nd St.
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