Yassin’s Falafel House in Knoxville, Tenn. is known in the community not just as a favorite restaurant but as a second home and a safe space for all. Owner Yassin Terou immigrated to the United States in 2011 as a Syrian refugee seeking asylum.
He is no stranger to having limited options or fearing for his life and the lives of his loved ones, so he has blended love, second chances and inclusion into the recipe of his restaurant. He believes that if we “mix together” all the good from “back home” with all the things we love here, each one of us “will be the best person ever.”
It’s this recipe that has caused the community, both locally and nationally, to acknowledge there is something special, something different happening at Yassin’s Falafel House. Since officially opening in 2014, Yassin has received many awards and honors which include the Knoxville Rotary Club’s Peace Award, the Knoxville News Sentinel’s Person of the Year, and the Nicest Place in America – a collaborative contest organized by 10Best, Reader’s Digest and Good Morning America.
After arriving in Knoxville, Yassin had difficulty finding a job due to the language barrier and lack of transportation. He reached out to a local mosque to see if they could help him find work. While they offered him help with food and housing, they didn’t have any work he could do. But Yassin didn’t want a hand-out: “I told them ‘No, don’t offer me any help.’ Just let me sell food outside of the mosque on Fridays.”
He was granted permission to sell his falafels, and that helped a little, but he still wasn’t making enough money, only about $50 or $60 a week. “But it wasn’t about the money,’ he shares. “It was about the dream, about doing something. That was more important to me than the money.”
A taste of Syria at Yassin’s Falafel House — Photo courtesy of Yassin’s Falafel House
People began to fall in love with Yassin’s falafels. This experience led to a friendship with a man who believed in Yassin and would later help him fund the opening of his restaurant.
While the story of Yassin’s success is certainly special, it’s not these events that make the experience at Yassin’s Falafel House so memorable – it’s the attitude and environment he has created here.
We all deserve a second chance
Yassin’s Falafel House is known as a friendly place, welcoming to all – regardless of religion, gender or ethnicity – and a place where second chances are celebrated. Yassin explains, “We always need people around us to give us the opportunity to be successful. I’m a personal story of people giving me an opportunity. If people didn’t believe in me or give me opportunities to be a success, I would never be a success, even if I wanted.”
And so he is committed to doing the same by offering opportunities and second chances to those who want them. Yassin works closely with community organizations, like Bridge Refugee Services and the YWCA, to employ not just other refugees and immigrants, but also former convicts, recovering addicts and individuals escaping domestic abuse.
They are all, like him, searching for a “new American Dream or a second chance at life.” Three years ago, Bridge Refugee Services introduced him to Hunar Muhammed. Hunar had left Kurdistan, Iraq with nothing but his wife and child. Despite an inability to communicate with one another – Hunar spoke only Kurdish and Yassin Arabic – Yassin recognized something familiar in Hunar’s face: “I saw in his eyes he wanted to start a new life.”
Hunar devoted himself to learning the English words for each of the falafel ingredients and proving himself to be a dedicated employee, eventually working his way up to supervisor. “I’m very happy for him. He’s buying a house now and had another child. He is living his American Dream right now and for me to see this guy’s success was also a big dream [come true].”
Yassin sees the best in people, despite their current circumstances. “Everybody has problems…the world is full of problems and negativity,” he says. But he believes remaining positive and grateful is how we can “change the world.”
People always want to know how Yassin can remain so full of love and positivity in the face of so much struggle. Coming from a war zone where people lose their lives everyday, Yassin fully understands “it can be worse.” But instead of letting this understanding bring him down, it helps him to put life in perspective each day. “If I don’t have $20 for a day,” he says, “it is going to be okay. I will have it the second day…nothing is going to be worse than losing life and losing love.”
What the American Dream means
Yassin, grateful for the life he has built in America, often references the American Dream, but it’s not the one those of us born and raised here often envision – lots of money and success.
He reveals, “As immigrants and refugees, when we come here, the American Dream is safety, it’s love…being able to vote for what you want and who you want…Feeling safe in your own home is part of the American Dream. Being able to send your kids to have an education is part of the American Dream. The American Dream is a second chance at life, not just for money and success in business…it’s being able to say what I want and being able to help other people who I love. This is a great thing.”
Part of the American Dream is paying it forward — Photo courtesy of Amanda Friedman / Reader’s Digest
Yassin’s positive spirit doesn’t mean he’s naive. He has witnessed more than his fair share of heartbreak and hatred – both in Syria and here in the United States – but he doesn’t let that slow him down.
He believes that despite our many differences, whether they be in the way we look, what we believe or the languages we speak, that “we can respect and love each other” while working “to build and protect this country altogether…if we all focus on our personal business but provide love to others, that’s the best life we can have.”
Yassin’s recipe for success – mixing all the good from back home with the good here – is also how he describes his falafels. “The taste is almost like what you would eat in Syria but with a little bit of the new community. Food is like life. You have stuff you love back home and things you love here. If you mix it together, you will get the best recipe, the best life.”