The dream began 17 years ago in a small deli called Sahara. Restaurant entrepreneur Nabil Shaer decided to bring a little taste of his hometown in Southern Lebanon to the streets of Downtown Portland, Oregon. With traditional family recipes and a lot of hard work Nabil won the hearts and the stomachs of Portlands evergrowing community. It was hard at first since many people had never tried Lebanese Food before, but once they had a taste they were hooked. After 15 years of running the small deli-style restaurant Sahara, with his family, Nabil found a perfect opportunity to expand his business without disapointing his long-time customers when a space on the busy 6th Avenue, not too far from Sahara ( in fact, only a block away ) became available. Nabil invisioned a tradtional full-service restaurant like they have in Lebanon, and this location was the perfect spot to establish his dream. The deep green color of the famous Lebanese cedar trees is what Nabil based the design of every detail of his new restaurant from the curtains to the carpet and named the place Abu Rasheed which in arabic means father of Rasheed. Along with expanding to a bigger place came a bigger menu with more delicious choices and traditional entrees.