Med Deli owner ready for new start after fire at popular Chapel Hill restaurant
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Mediterranean Deli will reopen Tuesday after a 2022 fire closed its kitchen.
- Owner Jamil Kadoura credits community support and shared values for success.
- The deli plans phased service expansion, starting with dinner and deli items.
The scent of warm pita filled the dining room at Mediterranean Deli in Chapel Hill on Thursday, as small rounds of bread emerged from the oven with a puff of steam, falling from the conveyor belt into a bin for packaging.
Employees hurriedly put away deliveries for the restaurant and its small market at 410 W. Franklin St., while in the kitchen, the staff smiled in busy silence, chopping onions, pounding flat chicken breasts, and crumbling huge bins of salty feta cheese.
Med Deli owner Jamil Kadoura jetted from one task to another, focused on last-minute details but smiling broadly as he talked about the reopening set for Tuesday — more than two years since a devastating fire.
The restaurant will open initially from 4 to 9 p.m., serving made-to-order dishes and 114 different items from the deli cases, including a few new salads, he said. Lunch service will start later, once the staff gets used to the recipes and the pace.
Based on the community’s ongoing interest in their plans, there could be lines for at least a few weeks, he said.
“I know we’re going to be very, very busy. We’re trying to prepare for that,” Kadoura said. “For now, we’re going to do the best we can to accommodate everybody and have fun.”
Med Deli rebuilds after the fire
The lunch rush had just ended at Med Deli on July 22, 2023, when Kadoura smelled smoke and saw a “ball of fire just as big as my palm” exit the roof, ignited by a welder using a torch.
Firefighters from multiple departments spent several hours putting out the fire and checked for hot spots through the night. It caused $3.1 million in damages to the building and ruined another $1 million in goods and equipment, Kadoura said. They saw their first loss in 32 years.
The pita oven, a few charred photos of his children, and a USB drive containing Med Deli’s recipes were among the few things that survived, he said.
Customers will return next week to find painted white brick walls and exposed ceiling boards, with accents of blue and white Moroccan tile “windows” and hammered brass pendant lights. Tiny lights and leafy artificial olive vines hug the massive steel beams.
Kadoura took the opportunity to build the kitchen he always wanted, with over a dozen stainless steel work tables, some dedicated to meat or nut production, and a huge, central hood system encompassing two rows of ovens, stoves and grills. Five new walk-in coolers were installed, and the basement was expanded, creating more gluten-free pita production space and storage.
Finding solutions to adversity
Kadoura and his wife, Angela, started the restaurant in 1991, working alongside his mother and sister behind a six-foot deli case in a space three doors down on West Franklin Street.
He had just six tables and 12 chairs, with plans to be a caterer, “because I knew this is how you succeed in this business,” he said.
“I used to fry falafel outside the door in a small pot (and) sneak it in, because I didn’t have the money to put a $3,000 hood system,” Kadoura said.
He kept the restaurant open after the fire by shifting to an online-only restaurant with a limited menu in the former Elaine’s on Franklin space at 454 W. Franklin St. The community raised $213,856 in six days to help pay his employees during the transition.
He will have 70 employees, including a few new ones, when the doors open Tuesday.
Supporting them was just one challenge in completing the $5 million-plus project, from an insurance payout that covered less than half of the cost, to construction delays and lengthy waits to get utilities and inspections, he said.
In mid-August, Kadoura almost ran down the sidewalk to his office at Elaine’s to write a check after learning the OWASA water meter — the last step to reopening — was ready.
The ordeal has been emotionally and financially challenging, especially as orders started to drop off last year, he said, but the community support has been overwhelming, from the UNC students who donated just a few dollars to help his staff to messages that he found posted on the restaurant’s window after the fire.
Rebuilding to give back to community
Kadoura, who will be 65 on Oct. 1, acknowledged that he could have taken the money and retired. He owns several properties on West Franklin and West Rosemary streets in Chapel Hill.
He chose to rebuild because it was important for his children, the community, and the employees who “were my soul and my heart,” he said. He called out several cooks in the kitchen by name Thursday, recalling when they started, as long as 19 years ago.
“It was insane what we went through the past two years,” Kadoura said, adding, “I didn’t think I could make it. I really didn’t.”
But it was worth it, because Med Deli has been an extension of me,” he said. “I think that’s why I succeeded here. I really do. I don’t think it’s only my good food [because] other restaurants have good food, too.”
Customers shared similar sentiments after the fire, saying Med Deli has sustained and nourished them, providing a safe space for the community and a helping hand in challenging times. The restaurant has donated thousands of dollars in food and money to support community causes and relief to nations facing war and natural disasters.
Kadoura’s own life was shaped by adversity as a 7-year-old Palestinian boy in Jerusalem, when the Six-Day War with Israel in 1967 forced his family into a refugee camp. They lived in tents patched together from blankets, he said, relying on the Red Cross for bread, cheese and olives.
“Getting involved in the community and giving back to the community is our blessing,” Kadoura said. “I promise this community, it will always continue as long as I’m breathing, and I will pass it onto my son to carry it on, because this community deserves more and more for what they have done, for our employees and for others across the area.”
This story was originally published September 5, 2025 at 8:10 AM.
