Cafe Soriah to expand into adjacent building

Good news for Cafe Soriah fans: The famously tiny Mediterranean restaurant on 13th Avenue will expand into its neighboring space, allowing owner Ibrahim Hamide to accomodate more customers.

Hamide says that his neighboring business for 22 years, a dress shop, shut down last summer, and Hamide's brother-in-law purchased the building in late August.

"So now I have an extremely friendly landlord," Hamide jokes.

He says the restaurant has had to turn people away on weekends because Cafe Soriah doesn't have enough floor space to accomodate the flood of people interested in having dinner there. The expansion will help cushion some of the demand.

"I'm looking forward to it, and it should allow us to do a better job serving people," he says.

Ideally, Hamide says, the expansion will be finished by Valentine's Day, and construction starts this week.