Beloved restaurant chain El Jannah began modestly in 1998, when Lebanese immigrants opened a small charcoal chicken shop in Sydney’s west.Nearly 30 years on, the business has grown to 50 stores nationwide, and could go global after its acquisition by American private equity firm General Atlantic, in a deal believed to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”It’s a phenomenal milestone for the brand. We’re 27 years old, and we feel like we’re just getting started,” El Jannah CEO Brett Houldin told SBS News.

“It’s been a great opportunity to go and find the right partner for us, a partner that will help us continue on the journey that we’ve been on of bringing Lebanese culture and food to Australians.”

Upholding the traditions

General Atlantic has approximately US $118 billion ($180 billion) in assets under its management.The American investor has acquired a controlling stake in the charcoal chicken chain for an undisclosed amount, which Houldin describes as a “big number”.”It’s a meaningful valuation for the organisation and something that we’re proud of,” Houldin said.

With the new partnership, El Jannah aims to open more than 25 restaurants over the next 12 months and expand to 200 stores across Australia over the next five years.

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International expansion was “definitely on the cards”, Houldin added.”It’ll make sure that we can do it in a really measured and successful way, and we can just continue to reinvest in our service culture, our food quality,” Houldin said.”We bring our food into the restaurant every day, and we want to uphold all those traditions.”El Jannah has the opportunity to go to so many great places. We were looking at markets across the world. There’ll be some really interesting ones.

“The Estephans who founded our brand want to have a look at the Middle East to begin with, back in their homeland, where they believe that it could do exceptionally well.”

The story of the Estephans

El Jannah — Arabic for paradise — was founded by Lebanese immigrants, Andre and Carole Estephan in the western Sydney suburb of Granville in 1998. The flavours were inspired by childhood memories of a paradise once found in Lebanon.

El Jannah’s menu centres on Lebanese-style charcoal chicken and its garlic sauce — a condiment that the company describes as a family recipe and their “best-kept secret”.

“It’s a phenomenal story for some phenomenal people … what they’ve done and bringing their cuisine and their ways of life to western Sydney,” Houldin said.”Then for us to be able to take it into more places across Sydney, Melbourne and hold true to that value set that we always had, and show it to the rest of Australia.”The story of Lebanese cuisine in Sydney has evolved in several chapters. Lebanese immigrants arriving in the mid-19th century had to hide their spices to avoid drawing attention from the cultural majority. However, by the time migrants escaping the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990 began arriving, Australia had begun to embrace multiculturalism.

“The Lebanese charcoal chicken, the garlic sauce, the pickles … all these great products are somewhat staple in a lot of Australians’ diets these days,” Houldin said

“We do it fresher, we do it more conveniently, and we do it in a great, cost-effective manner, which is really about sharing and abundance, and I think that’s what the Lebanese culture really brings to Australia.”In 2019, the Estephans stepped back from daily management of the restaurant. In the past three years, the business opened its first stores outside Sydney in Melbourne and Canberra.The restaurant has said that with a new partnership with General Atlantic, the family founders will remain deeply involved.”They are over the moon,” Houldin said.”They’re particularly proud of all of our team members, our franchisees, and the rest of the business that have led us to this point, but equally excited for the future.”We’ll never lose sight of what made us who we are. And we wanna make sure that in our local communities and those that operate around Australia, that they’re our first and foremost priority.”

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