{
  "id": 4388850,
  "title": "America’s Mediterranean lunch bowl is booming as NAYA races toward 200 restaurants",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/30/americas-mediterranean-lunch-bowl-is-booming-as-naya-races-toward-200",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-08-30T09:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/08/30/naya-hady-kfoury-mediterranean-fast-casual/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Hady Kfoury, born in Lebanon in 1981 during the civil war, opened his first restaurant in Manhattan in 2008 despite financial struggles. After moving to the U.S. to pursue his Lebanese culinary vision, Kfoury faced rejection from landlords and opened NAYA, initially as a fine-dining Lebanese restaurant. In 2010, he shifted the concept to fast casual, aiming to scale his family's recipes to serve hundreds of customers efficiently. NAYA employed over 1,000 people as of 2025, with each restaurant generating roughly $3 million in annual sales and above 10% yearly same-store sales growth. Kfoury anticipates NAYA will reach 200 locations by 2030. The fast-casual restaurant boom is tied to the growing popularity of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern flavors in grocery stores and restaurant menus, with sales reaching just under $2.5 billion in 2025. Cava, a leading chain, reported similar sales per location as NAYA, but with nearly double the number of restaurants. As Americans become more familiar with diverse Mediterranean cuisines, Kfoury predicts the label will gain even more widespread recognition, mirroring the evolution of \"Asian food\" in American cuisine.",
  "summary": "Mediterranean fast casual grew 16% last year, and NAYA’s founder is betting the boom can carry his Lebanese chain from 48 locations to 200.",
  "key_points": [
    "Hady Kfoury, Lebanese-born, opened first NAYA restaurant in 2008",
    "NAYA scaled from fine-dining to fast casual by 2010",
    "NAYA targets 200 locations by 2030"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}