Photo Courtesy Marwan Chebaro

Marwan Chebaro thinks the future of gas stations is food, and he’s set to test it out in Lawrence. ( I once thought that too, but then changed course after realizing a Slim Jim diet really wasn’t the weight loss plan its name suggests.) Don’t worry, though, Chebaro has a much better plan. He’s converting a Lawrence convenience store into a Mediterranean grill.

“It will be a serious eatery,” Chebaro said of his plans to open Chebaro Fresh Mediterranean Grill in the Cenex gas station across the street from the Dillons on 23rd Street.

Chebaro, whose background is in the restaurant and food-processing industry, has partnered with a friend who has experience in the convenience store industry. They have gutted the old Cenex store and installed all new fixtures and a brand new commercial kitchen and food service area. That food service area will be the basis for a new concept that Chebaro hopes to eventually roll out in convenience stores across the country.

The concept will involve us Slim Jim eating Americans to perhaps learn a new name: shawarma. If you don’t know what shawarma is, look for a man with a big, long knife cutting juicy meat off a vertical spit. That may be shawarma. (I say may be because there are other types of cooking styles that use a vertical spit.) Chebaro described the method as a Turkish/Arabic style of cooking. He plans to use the meat — most often beef, lamb and chicken — to make sandwiches that could be called a Turkish version of a Greek gyro.

Photo Courtesy Marwan Chebaro

The sandwiches are served either in pita pockets or flatbread, and they’ll come with a choice of five sauces, Chebaro said. Those include a traditional Lebanese garlic sauce called toum, a Jewish, Yemen jalapeño cilantro sauce, a harissa red chile sauce, and tahini sauce that involves sesame seeds, garlic and lemon juice.

But Chebaro said what will set the sandwiches apart is how the meat is prepared. Chebaro’s background is as a food scientist, which he said helped him learn that there is only one good way to marinate meat. You must use a food tumbler. He said simply mixing spices, oil and vinegar and coating the meat with such a marinade does little to cause the spices to penetrate the meat. But a food tumbler creates a vacuum that opens the pores of the meat, all while tumbling it in a machine that looks a bit like a cement mixer with a sealed door. (I too am a bit of a food scientist, and I have contributed greatly to the field by proving that sticking a brisket in the dryer — even on the delicate cycle — is not a great substitute for a food tumbler. It also is not good for the whites.)

Photo Courtesy: Marwan Chebaro

Chebaro said many restaurants that serve shawarma don’t take the time to marinate the meat with a tumbler. He thinks that and other attention to detail will be his recipe for success.

“We are going back to square one and the origin of this type of food,” Chebaro said. “We’re going to give the public what it deserves: the real thing.”

The Cenex station will continue to operate as a gasoline station and convenience store, so seating in the food area will be limited. There will be a communal table, but Chebaro said all the food items will be designed to be grab-and-go meals.

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• While one food venture is starting in a Lawrence gas station, another is closing. I confirmed this morning that Amici Italian Market and Deli, located in the convenience store at 3300 W. Sixth St. is closing. Importantly, so is the gas station and convenience store part of the business.

Owner Jess Maceli told me the business likely will close no later than the end of next week. He’s selling off the remaining meats and cheeses out of his Italian deli case at a 25 percent discount. Once those inventories are depleted, he’ll shut the doors for good. Maceli said demand for the business just wasn’t enough to keep the operation going.

The business already has shut down the gas station. No word yet on whether another convenience store company will move into the building.

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