{"id":240163,"date":"2026-05-22T02:33:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:33:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240163\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T02:33:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T02:33:18","slug":"how-naya-founder-hady-kfoury-turned-his-mothers-lebanese-kitchen-into-a-fast-growing-nyc-food-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/240163\/","title":{"rendered":"How Naya founder Hady Kfoury turned his mother\u2019s Lebanese kitchen into a fast-growing NYC food empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lebanese hospitality is at the heart of every bowl served at NAYA \u2014 but for founder Hady Kfoury, the inspiration behind the fast-growing Middle Eastern chain began long before the company expanded to 45 locations across the United States. It started in his mother\u2019s kitchen.<\/p>\n

In Lebanon, food is how a mother speaks.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you cannot find the words, you cook, when family comes together, the table is never empty, that is not generosity, that is just how loved, I raised my children around the table, and Hady has built his whole life trying to give that feeling to others,\u201d his mother said.<\/p>\n

Growing up in Lebanon, Kfoury says food was never just about eating. Every Sunday, Kfoury\u2019s mother and grandma prepared home-cooked meals for 20-30 family members gathered around the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tradition every Sunday. People were always having lunch together.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

His mother remembers him as the child who has always been closest to her among his two brothers, constantly in the kitchen asking questions about the meal.\n<\/p>\n

His mother remembers him as the child who was constantly in the kitchen, asking questions before most kids even thought about dinner.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHady was always in the kitchen, always watching, always asking,\u201d Kfoury\u2019s mother said. \u201cEvery morning before school, he would ask me, \u2018Mama, what are we having for dinner?\u2019 I always knew food was not just hunger for him. It was something deeper.\u201d<\/p>\n

That early curiosity eventually led Kfoury from Lebanon to New York. At only 8 years old, he was mesmerized by the hospitality staff-how they worked with precision and warmth. The memory stuck with him all throughout his years of schooling. After earning his green card at age 12 \u2014 a decision he credits largely to his mother pushing for dual citizenship amid instability in Lebanon \u2014 he spent summers in New York before attending hospitality school in Switzerland at EHL Hospitality Business School, formerly known as \u00c9cole H\u00f4teli\u00e8re de Lausanne. This culinary school is known as the Conrell of fine dining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He later trained under celebrated French chef Daniel Boulud and worked at the Mandarin Oriental New York before launching the first NAYA in 2007 as a fine dining restaurant in Manhattan.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy background was mainly with French chefs and fine dining,\u201d Kfoury said. \u201cThat\u2019s why the first NAYA was fine dining and full service.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

These experiences all ultimately led to the launch of NAYA in 2008, with family recipes and a 700K friends-and-family raise.
\n\"Hady<\/a>Hady Kfoury and his mother.Photo courtesy of Hady Kfoury\n<\/p>\n

How culture translates into strategy\u00a0<\/p>\n

By 2010, he pivoted the brand toward fast-casual dining, inspired by the idea that Lebanese cuisine \u2014 traditionally built around many shared small plates \u2014 could become more accessible through customizable bowls and assembly-line service.<\/p>\n

\u201cLebanese food is about sharing,\u201d he said. \u201cWe wanted to create something affordable where people could still experience authentic flavors.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Even as NAYA scaled nationally, Kfoury says authenticity remained non-negotiable \u2014 especially for his mother.\n<\/p>\n

When developing the recipes, Kfoury flew chefs back to Lebanon to train directly with his mother. His mother even traveled to New York herself to teach the proper preparation of signature dishes like hummus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds simple, but it is not simple, not the way we make it,\u201d Kfrouy\u2019s mother said. \u201cThe texture, the balance, the way it should feel. Some things cannot be explained over the phone. You have to feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He and Kfoury\u2019s mother are known as the fava beans, his wife jokes.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you split the beans in half, they are the exact same,\u201d Kfoury said. \u201cWe share traits of being picky, pushy, and getting one thing done at a time, not postponing, meticulous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family has been a huge influence on Kfoury\u2019s success. The first location opened across the street from his aunt\u2019s apartment \u201456th and 2nd Avenue\u2014the 1st fine-dining location was literally across the street from her apartment. Special place, it\u2019s like my childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cProteins are marinated for 24 to 48 hours. We cook everything from scratch,\u201d he said. \u201cScaling while keeping authenticity and freshness is not easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the company\u2019s culture continues to mirror the warmth he experienced growing up in Lebanon.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Lebanese people, we love to host,\u201d Kfoury said. \u201cWe love to welcome people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

For his mother, the business\u2019s success has never been about numbers or expansion. It is about seeing Lebanese traditions travel far beyond Beirut\u2019s home kitchens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Future for NAYA\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, as NAYA rapidly expands with plans to reach 200 restaurants within five years, Kfoury says maintaining that homemade quality remains one of the company\u2019s biggest challenges. NAYA\u2019s a $100 M+ business with over 40 locations and a fiercely loyal following. Kfoury hopes to open 17 restaurants by the end of 2026 and 25 by the end of 2027.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSomewhere in America right now, someone is eating food that came from my kitchen, from my mother\u2019s kitchen before me,\u201d Kfoury\u2019s mother said. \u201cThat is not business to me. That is a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lebanese hospitality is at the heart of every bowl served at NAYA \u2014 but for founder Hady Kfoury,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8009,6700,93862,93863,93864,9,11,10,49,51,50,613,1302],"class_list":["post-240163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-eat-and-drink","tag-fast-food","tag-hady-kfoury","tag-lebanese-food","tag-naya","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-pm-newsletter","tag-restaurant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}