Beit Rima
Paul Mogannam ran BurgerMeister for twenty years. It took his son Samir a year to talk him into handing over the Church Street shop, and he lent him the money to convert it. The name means "Rima's house", after Samir's mother. It opened in 2019 as a counter for Palestinian and Jordanian home cooking.
Why go
Samir Mogannam told Soleil Ho, then the Chronicle's restaurant critic, that he was not trying to be creative. The menu is the food he grew up on, streamlined so a cramped kitchen can push volume.1
He cites Aziza, Dyafa and the departed Tawla as the kitchens that shaped him. The old BurgerMeister tables are still in the room. He and the designer Fadi Alnumaani bought the Ethan Allen chairs off Craigslist. The pop-art prints are by a Saudi artist he found on Instagram.
The bread comes out puffed hollow and covered in za'atar. It is the tool for everything else. The mezze sampler runs muhammara, hummus, lebna and baba ganoush with two falafel. The Gazan lamb shank pulls off the bone with maftool underneath, and Julia Chen says it feeds two or three. I have not found a review of this room newer than hers, from July 2024.2
Order this / avoid
- Order: the mezze sampler, and two breads if there are four of you.
- Order: the chicken shish tawook plate for the side of mom's rice.
- Order: the delicata squash under brown butter lebna.
- Order: the Gazan lamb shank, $32 on Eater's current count.3
- Avoid: calling it Mediterranean. Mogannam refused the word.
What locals & experts say
- Samir Mogannam to Soleil Ho, San Francisco Chronicle, May 2019:
I really wanted to rep Arab food.
1 - The Infatuation SF (Julia Chen, July 2024), 9.1:
The generously portioned Arabic comfort food deserves its cult following.
2 The Infatuation is owned by JPMorgan Chase.
Good to know
- Getting in: no reservations. You order at the counter and take a number.
- The other door: there is a second Beit Rima in Cole Valley, at 86 Carl Street. This one is Church Street, in Duboce Triangle.
- Noise: loud at peak, on the Chronicle's own measure.
Verdict
should-visit — Order more than you think and let it all land at once. It is cheap enough that over-ordering costs you nothing.