News

New York's Dill & Parsley ready to expand

August 12, 2019

Dill & Parsley, a fast casual Mediterranean restaurant concept based in Manhattan, will open its fifth location in September in NYC's Financial District, with major expansion plans in place.

"We had such a great reception from the midtown lunch crowd that we saw an excellent opportunity to bring this exciting option to the FiDi area," Dill & Parsley Founder Balahan Bobus, said in a company press release.

Bobus plans to expand the concept, which first opened in 2015, in midtown Manhattan, to a nationwide audience, adding about 20 restaurants in the next three years.

"No one is offering higher quality fast-casual Mediterranean food than Dill & Parsley," Bobus said. "We have a huge fan base, and we are  looking forward to grow that out of NYC." 

In the more than 20 years since Bobus emigrated to the U.S. from Turkey to attend college, he noticed something was missing in the food landscape. 

"I saw Chinese, Mexican and Italian, but there was a real lack of eastern Mediterranean options, especially healthy, wholesome eastern Mediterranean options," he said.

When he decided to create Dill & Parsley, incorporating his heritage was a no brainer. Many of the restaurant's recipes were handed down through several generations of his family, and several dishes are unique adaptations of traditional Aegean and Anatolian recipes. The menu, for example, draws from a variety of Mediterranean cultures with dishes that date back millennia. Options include sautéed veggies and yogurt from the Aegean coastline and Turkish Doner Grill from Anatolia. Middle Eastern favorites include baklava, tahini, hummus, Marash pepper and falafel, Bobus said.