Jerusalem Cafe

Jerusalem Cafe is a Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurant anchored at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Westport Road in Westport, serving gyros, falafel, hummus, and shawarma since 1989. Founded by the late Farid Alazzeh and now run by his sons, it is a 35-year Westport institution best known to night-owls for its weekend late-night food truck, which feeds the bar crowd outside until roughly 3 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Description

Jerusalem Cafe is a full-service Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurant in the heart of Kansas City’s Westport entertainment district, “on the corner of Pennsylvania and Westport Road.”¹ The menu centers on Greek and Levantine staples — gyros, falafel, hummus, shawarma, kebabs, and baklava — and the original Westport location also operates a hookah bar.²

The restaurant’s most distinctive feature is its late-night food truck. On weekend nights the Alazzeh family stations a food truck/window outside the restaurant to serve the Westport bar crowd hummus, gyros, and falafel “after spending hours bar hopping,” with weekend service extending to roughly 3 a.m.³⁴ The brand has since grown “from a humble 2 person kitchen” to multiple brick-and-mortar locations plus “a fleet of food trucks.”¹

Ownership and history

Jerusalem Cafe was founded in 1989 by Farid Alazzeh. It originally opened as the “Westport Sizzler,” serving both American and Mediterranean dishes; about a year later, as the Mediterranean fare “was really taking off,” the family rebranded it Jerusalem Cafe and refocused on Middle Eastern cuisine.⁵ The official site describes it as a Westport “staple for 30 years,” consistent with a 1989 founding.¹

Founder Farid Alazzeh passed away in August 2025, leaving the restaurant to his sons.⁵⁶ The business remains family-owned and is now operated by the next generation of the Alazzeh family, including Adam and Dennis Alazzeh, who continue to run the original Westport flagship while expanding to additional metro locations (Independence and Mission, KS).⁵

Links

• Official site: https://jerusalemkc.com/
• History: https://jerusalemkc.com/history/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/jerusalem-cafe-kansas-city

Sources

Disputes

• Address number variance. A third-party Westport directory lists “575 Westport Road,”³ while the official site, Yelp, Grubhub, and the Toast ordering page consistently list 515 Westport Rd. 515 is treated as the verified address; the 575 figure is likely a listing error. for definitive county/business-license confirmation if precision becomes load-bearing.
• Exact rebrand date (“Westport Sizzler” → “Jerusalem Cafe”) is reported as “about a year” after the 1989 opening, i.e. ~1990; not pinned to an exact date.

Footnotes

1. Jerusalem Cafe — official history page. https://jerusalemkc.com/history/ — asserts: founded 1989; located “on the corner of Pennsylvania and Westport Road”; “a staple for 30 years”; grew “from a humble 2 person kitchen” to multiple locations and “a fleet of food trucks.” ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Jerusalem Cafe — official homepage. https://jerusalemkc.com/ — asserts: “Authentic Middle Eastern Cuisine”; gyros, falafel, hummus, baklava; Westport location; phone 816-442-8655. ↩

3. Westport KCMO business directory — Jerusalem Cafe. https://westportkcmo.com/business/jerusalem-cafe/ — asserts: Jerusalem Cafe is a Westport business operating “a fleet of Food trucks.” (Note: this listing’s stated street number (575) and hours differ from the official site and Yelp; 515 used as verified address — see Disputes.) ↩ ↩²

4. Startland News — “Brothers bringing Jerusalem Cafe, Chick-In Waffle, sober bar mashup to Power & Light” (2025). https://www.startlandnews.com/2025/04/culture-concepts/ — asserts: the Alazzeh family’s late-night Westport food truck serves the bar crowd hummus and gyros after hours; family expansion plans. ↩

5. Johnson County Post — “Mediterranean eatery Jerusalem Cafe readying Mission location” (2025-03-12). https://johnsoncountypost.com/2025/03/12/jerusalem-cafe-mission-opening-254940/ — asserts: founded 1989 as “Westport Sizzler,” rebranded ~1 year later as Jerusalem Cafe; family-owned by the Alazzeh family; current operators include Adam Alazzeh; original Westport location remains a full-service restaurant. ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Jerusalem Cafe KC — official Facebook memorial post. https://www.facebook.com/JerusalemCafeKC/posts/1237089345096053/ — asserts: “In Loving Memory — Farid Azzeh — Founder of Jerusalem Café, a Kansas City staple since 1989.” ↩