A car plowed through this Boise restaurant. Here’s when it might reopen — ‘hopefully’

If you’ve eagerly anticipated the rebirth of Tarbush Kitchen, there was bittersweet news this week.

The good part? Tarbush, 5749 W. Overland Road, still plans to reopen after a car crashed through the side of the restaurant in late January, damaging the exterior and dining room. (The driver was charged with suspicion of driving under the influence. No one was injured.)

The bad part? (If you crave Tarbush’s Mediterranean and Middle Eastern food now?)

Over six months later, the restaurant is still dark.

“Apologizes for this late delay for our reopening,” Tarbush posted on its Facebook page this week. “We will be opening hopefully before January 2023. We all have been working very hard to make Tarbush Kitchen better than ever. Thank you all once again for the support. We will be keeping you all updated.”

A temporary shutdown for up to nearly a year ... hopefully? That might surprise Tarbush’s shawarma-loving customers. In previous Facebook communications, the restaurant had targeted May, then July.

But in an Aug. 27 email to the Statesman, co-owner Salam Bunyan indicated that Tarbush should reopen the first week of October. The building permit took seven months to process, Bunyan said.

For now, Tarbush is focused on catering, he added.

In February, Salam and his wife, Aseel, set up a GoFundMe page, which has reached more than $24,000 of its $25,000 goal.

This story was originally published August 26, 2022 at 12:44 PM.