{"id":74240,"date":"2025-12-31T00:27:26","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/74240\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T00:27:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T00:27:26","slug":"bethlehem-restaurant-closes-after-brief-run-but-new-eatery-already-in-the-works-lehigh-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/74240\/","title":{"rendered":"Bethlehem restaurant closes after brief run, but new eatery already in the works | Lehigh County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 After roughly seven months of operation, a full-service restaurant offering omelets, sandwiches and other freshly prepared eats has closed in Northampton County.<\/p>\n<p>Bilal\u2019s Breakfast &amp; Sandwiches, featuring a unique blend of American and Turkish flavors, ceased operations on Dec. 21 at 46 W. North St., according to Mike Dartouzos, the restaurant\u2019s landlord.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Bilal's\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"2065\" height=\"1004\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6839df01f34dd.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"97\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bilal&#8217;s operates at 46 W. North St. in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n<p>Bilal Bozkoc <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/features\/eat-sip-shop\/new-restaurant-offering-familiar-favorites-mediterranean-specialties-at-former-dartos-spot\/article_d0588cfd-b2b6-4998-ada9-1ed904aab147.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">opened his namesake eatery on May 30<\/a> at the site of the former Darto\u2019s restaurant, a 41-year-old breakfast and lunch eatery that Dartouzos and his wife, Stephanie Dartouzos, closed in March in advance of their retirement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA majority of the people who came into Bilal\u2019s really loved the food, but business just never really took off for whatever reason and there wasn\u2019t enough foot traffic to continue operating,\u201d Mike told 69 News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe good news is that we have a new restaurant tenant lined up, and the tentative plan is for them to open in the space on March 1.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Bilal's\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1977\" height=\"1048\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6839dfdf04310.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"106\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bilal&#8217;s owner Bilal Bozkoc is pictured in late May outside of his namesake restaurant at 46 W. North St. in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n<p>Bozkoc and his team maintained much of Darto&#8217;s decor and continued to offer some of Darto&#8217;s staples, including breakfast sandwiches, egg platters, omelettes, French toast, pancakes and home fries, while introducing several new selections such as a Philly cheesesteak, chopped chicken sandwich and beef or chicken doner platter with rice pilaf and house salad.<\/p>\n<p>Bozkoc has a Turkish background and incorporated several Mediterranean offerings into Bilal&#8217;s menu, with dishes such as a homemade Turkish meatball sub, Turkish sucuk sandwich (grilled spicy Turkish beef sausage with tomatoes, pickles and lettuce) and kokorec sandwich (finely chopped, grilled lamb intestines seasoned with Turkish spices).<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Bilal's Breakfast &amp; Sandwich Restaurant\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"960\" height=\"1201\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/681e151fbf99b.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"250\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                    Bilal&#8217;s Breakfast &amp; Sandwich Restaurant<\/p>\n<p>Initially, Bilal\u2019s was open for breakfast, lunch and dinner daily before hours were rolled back to focus on breakfast and lunch after a few months.<\/p>\n<p>The new restaurant that is set to replace Bilal\u2019s is still under development, and its name, menu highlights and other details will be announced in the coming months, Mike said.<\/p>\n<p>The new operators are brothers who have worked as chefs in other Lehigh Valley restaurants for decades, Mike said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey have a lot of experience, and I think they\u2019re going to do really well here,\u201d Mike added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re still deciding on the restaurant\u2019s name, but it\u2019ll definitely offer breakfast and lunch, with possible dinner service as well in the future. So, it\u2019ll be an entirely new restaurant with a new name and menu. I think they&#8217;re going to do really well here.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Darto\u2019s served generations of families before holding its last day of business on March 15 ahead of Mike and Stephanie\u2019s retirement.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Bilal's\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"2065\" height=\"1004\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6839df37efa8e.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"97\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Bilal&#8217;s operated at 46 W. North St. in Bethlehem.<\/p>\n<p>                                    Ryan Kneller<\/p>\n<p>The couple took over operations in 1990 from Mike\u2019s parents, Michael and Mary Lois, who established the business in 1984.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2013 After roughly seven months of operation, a full-service restaurant offering omelets, sandwiches and other freshly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68454,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,7757,38429,38425,38428,157,38426,434,38427],"class_list":{"0":"post-74240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-bethlehem-restaurant","12":"tag-bilal","13":"tag-bilal-bozkoc","14":"tag-dartos-restaurant","15":"tag-lehigh-valley","16":"tag-mike-dartouzos","17":"tag-northampton-county","18":"tag-sandwich"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74240"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74240\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}