From Yemen to Memphis: Queen of Sheba serves up halal food, juice in new Cordova location
After leaving behind his home and two restaurants in Yemen, Hefdhallah Alghdry moved to the U.S. to find other opportunities.
And he found them in Memphis.
In 2009, Alghdry moved from Yemen to Hamtramck, Michigan, and opened his restaurant Sheeba, which served Yemeni cuisine including dishes spiced with green cardamom, cumin seeds and coriander seeds.
After about seven years, Alghdry moved to Memphis and once again shared his Yemeni culture with a city about 8,000 miles from his hometown.
Alghdry, alongside his partner Esmail Al Gahdari, in 2016 opened Queen of Sheba at 4792 Summer Ave., in place of the Edo Japanese restaurant.
"We came from Yemen, and this is our experience," said Alghdry, who still owns his Michigan restaurant. "There were a lot of Yemenis starting to ask about needing a restaurant in Memphis, and we came here and saw all the people liked our food."
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Their Summer Avenue restaurant brought in customers from across Shelby County, growing their business to a larger scale than the store could handle, Alghdry said.
So, the duo joined with another partner, Anas Barrouk (Abu Malek), in December and opened a second Queen of Sheba in Cordova at 1250 N. Germantown Parkway, Suite 101.
"The first restaurant was small," Alghdry said. "It wasn't big enough for large parties... and (Cordova) is a different area."
He said Cordova is the middle of Shelby County, connecting from Collierville, to Memphis, to Bartlett, and the new restaurant will draw more attention.
The Cordova restaurant's menu expanded from the original's and includes more grilled meat options and fresh juice from its juice bar decorated with an array of daily fruit including oranges, pomegranates and coconuts.
As you enter the new restaurant, the smell of grilled lamb, turmeric, cumin and cloves fill your nose. Customers can see into the kitchen and watch the chicken, lamb and beef spin on a spit as cooks slice down the meats for shawarma sandwiches.
Servers in the juice bar cut open fruit and throw it into a juicer, then pour it into glasses decorated with cocktail umbrellas and syrup on the inside.
Alghdry said the new restaurant sees between 100 to 200 customers a day and most customers order the lamb haneeth (slow roasted lamb seasoned with Yemeni spices atop saffron rice), lamb fahsah (seasoned lamb and potato stew served in a clay bowl) and sheba saltah (sautéed ground beef, tomatoes and potatoes in a clay bowl).
He said all the food at Queen of Sheba is halal, or permissible by Islamic standards.
One new menu item Alghdry cherishes is the Sheba Araisi, a rainbow cocktail of ice cream, pineapple, grapes and assorted juices topped with nuts, a Kit Kat and coconut flakes.
"Our food is good, our juice is good, people like it," he said. "One thing people should know is we make good, clean food for everyone."
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Dima Amro covers the suburbs for The Commercial Appeal and can be reached at Dima.Amro@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @AmroDima.
Queen of Sheba Imperial Restaurant in Cordova
Address: 1250 N. Germantown Parkway, Suite 101
Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.- 10 p.m. Friday-Sunday
Phone: (901) 454-3144
Online: www.queenofshebausa.com
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Queen of Sheba brings its Yemeni food to Cordova with expansion
