At Old School, a Middle Eastern restaurant specializing in lamb dishes in suburban Palos Hills, dinner often begins with an early-morning message in a WhatsApp group chat.
Each morning, owner and chef Mohd Mahd sends his roughly 70 regulars a list of what he is cooking that day. They reply with orders for pickup, reserving most of the restaurant’s roughly 60-100 daily meals before the doors even open. There is no fixed menu and the business does not operate like a typical dine-in or carryout restaurant. What is offered changes day to day and is dictated by customers who span the Middle Eastern diaspora. Dish requests can be put in for the following day by anyone. Walk-ins are welcome and are offered a menu set by the previous day’s requests. The most expensive dish tops out at $32 for a 3-pound, bone-in lamb.
The restaurant has gained a loyal following (with 730 reviews on Google, it has an almost-perfect 4.9 star rating) for its unconventional business.
“People can expect somebody that’s cooking this food with passion, with honesty, no cheating, the right amount, the right way, and the right flavor,” said Sammy Daaboul, of Orland Park, and a customer since 2017. “What he promises he fulfills, bottom line you don’t like it, he will say, ‘I’m sorry. Here’s your money back.’ He’ll give you a rain check for another dish to give it one more try. But 99.9% once you enter his premises, you are hooked.”…