A falafel shop that opened in Georgetown with falafel and hummus sandwiches, a falafel salad bowl and sides on its menu has grown into a 13-location fast-casual chain spanning D.C., Maryland and Virginia, and its latest move puts a 2,760-square-foot flagship with its own startup incubator in the Mosaic District. Falafel Inc. was founded in May 2017 by Palestinian-American entrepreneur Ahmad Ashkar, who built the business around a simple pitch: cheap, flavorful food tied to a mission of feeding refugees.
The original shop took over the former Quick Pita space at 1210 Potomac Street NW, an 800-square-foot storefront, according to Washington City Paper. At opening, falafel or hummus sandwiches went for $3 each and a falafel salad bowl cost $4, the paper reported. The space itself leaned into the concept with a rough, plywood-heavy design meant to evoke a refugee-camp setting. Most of the original recipes — from the falafel to the hummus — came from Ashkar’s mother and grandmother, WTOP reported at the time.
A Mission Baked Into Every Sandwich
Ashkar, who also runs the Hult Prize social-enterprise competition focused on refugee causes, told WTOP that falafel made sense as the centerpiece of the business because it’s a go-to food for refugees — it’s cheap to make and easy to scale. The company’s giving model ties directly to sales: Falafel Inc. donates the cost of feeding a refugee for one day for every $10 in revenue. The chain has partnered with World Food Program USA since 2017, and that organization says Falafel Inc. has provided it with more than 131,000 meals.
The brand’s growth since that first Georgetown lease has been steady rather than explosive. It opened a Tysons Corner Center location, on Level One of the mall, in 2019, and later added spots at 1140 Maine Avenue SW near the Wharf fish market, plus outposts at Foggy Bottom and the Smithsonian National Zoo. By October 2026, the chain had grown to 13 locations, mostly in the D.C. region, though FFXnow notes it debuted on the West Coast in 2021 with a Los Angeles franchise in Westwood.
New Mosaic District Flagship Adds a Food Lab
Falafel Inc. first opened in the Mosaic District in 2024 in a modest 540-square-foot storefront next to Our Mom Eugenia. According to the same FFXnow report, the chain has now relocated that store into a 2,760-square-foot space at 2985 District Avenue, Unit 115 — a flagship that adds a Food Lab intended to host other food-and-beverage startups. The expanded menu brings in ful, a fava bean stew; msabaha, hummus topped with chickpeas and tahini sauce; fatteh, a yogurt-based sauce with chickpeas and nuts; and freshly baked pita, per FFXnow’s account…