Shawarma Shop & Bakery has traded its tight takeout space for real elbow room, opening an expanded location inside Ann Arbor's 777 Building after its original spot was cleared for a major Southside redevelopment. The new restaurant occupies a 2,200 square-foot space at 777 E. Eisenhower Parkway, Suite 110, exactly 900 square feet larger than the 1,300 square-foot storefront it left behind on the site of the new Arbor South development.
According to MLive, the move gives owners more room for dine-in guests while keeping the restaurant close to the neighborhood where it built its customer base. The original Shawarma Shop operated out of a compact takeout space beside the gas station at South State Street and East Eisenhower Parkway before closing in late 2025, after the surrounding property was prepared for the Arbor South redevelopment. Rather than lose a longtime tenant, Oxford Companies, which owns the 777 Building, invited Shawarma Shop & Bakery to move into the neighboring tower.
Owner Bilal Choukeir, who runs the restaurant with his wife, Jenny, said the relocation gives his business a larger, more welcoming space while keeping it in the neighborhood that has supported it from the start, according to the Detroit Metro Times. Choukeir is the shop's head chef, bringing more than 25 years of culinary experience that includes a previous stint as culinary director at Atwater Brewery. He has said that buying Shawarma Shop let him fulfill a longtime dream of owning a restaurant while drawing on his Lebanese heritage.
A Decade-Long Commitment to the 777 Building
Choukeir has signed a ten-year deal with Oxford Companies to move into the ten-story office tower, according to the Ann Arbor Observer. Oxford Companies' own announcement places Shawarma Shop directly in Suite 110 on the first floor of its headquarters building. Oxford Companies vice president for real estate development Andy Andre has said the company did not want to displace the restaurant, and that moving into the 777 Building let Shawarma Shop stay put while the surrounding land was redeveloped, per the Michigan Daily.
Oxford Companies CEO Jeff Hauptman has called Shawarma Shop & Bakery a beloved Ann Arbor institution, saying it fits the company's vision for a more walkable Southside district. The firm's marketing and business development director separately described the restaurant as a key piece of that same vision for a walkable, vibrant Southside, the Observer reported. The sentiment lines up with Arbor South itself, the sprawling mixed-use project reshaping the blocks the shop once called home.
What's Replacing the Old Shawarma Shop Block
Arbor South is a mixed-use development from Oxford Companies and Crawford Hoying on a 20-acre site on Ann Arbor's south side, per the Michigan Daily's reporting. The Observer has described plans for a mixed-use community corridor of roughly 1,000 multifamily housing units, alongside commercial space and a hotel. That scale of redevelopment is exactly what pushed Shawarma Shop out of its original footprint beside the Shell station at State and Eisenhower, where it first opened in February 2021 serving eleven substantial sandwiches at $4.99 each, according to the Observer's earlier coverage.
Same Menu, Bigger Dining Room
The new location still serves the chicken and beef shawarma, gyros, falafel sandwiches, bowls, dinner plates, salads, soups, appetizers, sides and desserts that built the shop's following, using halal meats, overnight marinades, house-made hummus, fresh vegetables and fresh pita. MLive and Oxford Companies' own blog post give differing accounts of the restaurant's current hours, with MLive reporting a Monday-through-Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. schedule closed on weekends, while Oxford Companies describes the shop as open daily starting at 11 a.m. The two sources also diverge on timing: the Observer had reported an expected early-December 2025 opening, while the Michigan Daily quoted Choukeir saying the move began at the end of December 2025 and regular business didn't start until February.
Whatever the exact timeline, the bigger dining room marks a new chapter for a restaurant that started in a compact takeout space and grew into what Oxford Companies' leadership calls a Southside fixture. For regulars who followed Shawarma Shop from the Shell station corner to its new home in the 777 Building, the shop still serves shawarma and falafel — with more space to sit down and enjoy them.
