“Teta” in Lebanese means “grandmother”. So, “Chez Teta”, in Rennes, it obviously had to resemble something family. Guy and Siham Assaf opened this Lebanese restaurant 36 years ago. “We must have been the second Lebanese restaurant in Rennes,” remembers the one everyone calls “Madame Assaf”. As for the dining room, it is she who ensures the reputation of the place. With a temperament and attention to service that has always flattered the reputation of the restaurant.
Everything is fine
Here, we welcome, we talk. We speak to people, just enough, during the meal. To find out if “everything is okay”. “I’ve always been like that, going to see everyone, talking. I love people, and being of service.”
We bring spices from Lebanon, because here, the products have no smell.”
On the kitchen side, the chef, Guy, works “homemade”, with traditional recipes. Eggplant caviar, for example: “we grill the eggplants on the barbecue, to then work on the flesh, but that’s what gives this very particular, slightly smoky taste”. Spices ? “We went to Lebanon in the summer, to see the family, and we brought back the spices, because here, we don’t find quite the same things.”
(Le Télégramme/Dimitri Rouchon-Borie)
Source
The company that operates the restaurant is called “La maison source”. “And it’s still the source, where it all began.” A few years ago, however, the source almost dried up. “We passed the restaurant on to our daughter-in-law. But after the Covid crisis, things weren’t going well at all, she couldn’t hold on. That’s why we came back and reopened the restaurant, I can’t let it go like this.”
Civil war
The couple works “day and night” to save more than an economy, a story.
It began with the civil war, which ravaged Lebanon from 1985. “We could no longer stand the bombings,” says Siham Assaf. The sequel will be built in France. Because Lebanon has long been nourished by French culture. Her husband, Lebanese, is called Guy. The restaurateur was studying modern literature at the time of her departure. Her husband traded in automobile spare parts.
Receive
“Catering is not our job. In Lebanon we loved to entertain, and we cooked. When we opened here, that’s what we wanted to continue doing. That people have the impression of being received like friends, like a family reception, and that they feel at home, not in a business.”
Practical
Chez Teta, 25 Rue de la Chalotais, in Rennes. Such. 06 16 47 38 80.
