Naja. 2911 District Ave., Fairfax
Tariq Alaeddin has been an evangelist for toum, the simple whipped Lebanese sauce whose name simply means “garlic,” for most of his life.
When his mom would pick up a rotisserie chicken from Walmart, he’d ask her to drive across town to a Middle Eastern grocery to pick up some toum to go with it.
Toum was also the centerpiece of his earliest restaurant idea. “I wrote my first menu and gave it to my father as a proposal when I was 10 years old,” Alaeddin says. “The concept was called ‘And Toum,’ so I basically wanted to serve my favorite American items and just add garlic sauce as a side.”
Today, Alaeddin will finally open his first real-life restaurant, NAJA, in the former Kirby Club space in Fairfax. Anyone who’s had the creamy Lebanese garlic sauce knows why it’s so special, but Alaeddin, who grew up between Beirut and Herndon, is trying to introduce more Lebanese flavors to a broad audience.
NAJA, which is named after Alaeddin’s grandmother, has more similarities than differences with Rose Previte’s Kirby Club, which closed this month after two years in the Mosaic District. Alaeddin started working there as a server the week it opened, and eventually worked his way up to general manager.
At NAJA, there’s mezze like stuffed grape leaves, beef kibbeh, pan-seared halloumi, spreads, and salads. Cheesy manaeesh, a Lebanese flatbread, is topped liberally with za’atar from Rockville favorite Z&Z Manoushe Bakery. You can order kebabs like chicken shish taouk, kofta, steak, and trumpet mushroom one by one, or opt for the $68 mixed grill for two.
A simpler lunch menu features some of these dishes with the addition of wraps and sandwiches like a fried chicken sandwich and a Lebanese chopped cheese, topped with toum of course. Brunch, focused on fresh-baked manaeesh, is coming soon.
Alaeddin is particularly proud of his Lebanese street chicken, served on thin flatbread alongside batata harra (crispy potatoes), watercress salad, and toum. Beyond toum, the lengthy sauce menu includes zhoug, harissa, tahina, and Alaeddin’s grandmother’s recipe for a bright red shatta chili sauce.
Desserts include a cake inspired by the ubiquitous Dubai chocolate, and NAJA’s original cocktails draw on Middle Eastern flavors like pistachio, fig, and baharat spice.
NAJA is a family affair. Alaeddin’s uncle and father helped him recreate some of his family’s recipes. His mother, a longtime florist, is designing the flower arrangements on the 20-seat bar. Pooling their collective knowledge, Alaeddin says, NAJA should paint a full picture of Lebanese cooking and hospitality.
“If you go around and take a poll, a lot of people don’t actually know what Lebanese food can be,” he says. “So this is my way of making people fall in love with Lebanese food.”
