New Palestinian Restaurant ‘The Olive Bistro’ Opens in Little Falls

By Tina Pappas

Anwar and Osama Mansour grew up loving the authentic food their mother and grandmother made back in their native Palestine. The brothers came to the U.S. at ages 15 and 9, where they settled in Clifton with their family. It was then they decided early on that they would eventually make all the recipes of those delicious Palestinian dishes they love so much so that others can enjoy them as well..

The Mansour brothers are now the proud co-owners of The Olive Bistro, located at 66 East

New Palestinian Restaurant ... cont. from page 28 Main Street. They say opening the restaurant, which features authentic Palestinian cuisine, is a dream come true for them.

“We’ve been in the business now for over 20 years and we first started off with catering, so we ran catering halls together,” said Anwar. “When the pandemic first hit, we went into cloud kitchens and we always said that we’d work to get our own place. Everyone loves our food and kept telling us that we should open our own restaurant.”

Osama said he was very excited to own the restaurant alongside his brother.

“I’m very happy and look- ing forward to others enjoying our authentic cuisine as we always have,” he said.

“My brother and I came over to this location to sign the deal and now it’s a reality. This is a true Palestinian restaurant with our parents’ and grandparents’ recipes.”

A ribbon-cutting grand opening ceremony was held for The Olive Bistro on March 20. Mayor James Damiano and council members gathered at the restaurant to celebrate with the Mansour brothers, along with their families.

Also on-hand for the celebration was the brothers’ father Mustafa, who said one of the crowd favorite dishes that his sons make is the Makluba dish, also known as a “flipped pot,” consisting of stewed meat of chicken or lamb, rice and fried vegetables, that are placed in a pot. The pot is then flipped upside down onto a serving dish to make a tower of flavor.

“I’m very happy for them and look forward to seeing them thrive in their restaurant,” he said.

Damiano said the addition of the Olive Bistro to Little Falls is extremely exciting.

“I’m looking forward to having some Palestinian cuisine here in town,” he added.