khalilsadiq

Hi DonRonockwell community, I wanted to let everyone know about the recent situation we have had with Walmart where we park Ariana Kabob Grill. In April of last year we opened our Halal food truck and went directly to Walmart to ask permission to operate out of their parking lot. Walmart was gracious enough to let us park there and we have spent a year building a large following. We were just about to hire someone full time because it has been so busy. In that past year we have had no complaints, no incidences and have been extremely grateful to Walmart for giving us the opportunity to use their space. But shortly after the Boston marathon bombing a man in his 50's came around the truck twice taking pictures and asking our customers who were waiting for their orders if they know they are buying food from muslims. That we don't belong there and they shouldn't do business with us. Two days later a manager that we have never seen before told us we could no longer park here. He said Walmart was receiving junk mail in our name and that they had received some complaints. when we asked about the complaints his response was "he didn't want to discuss it and we had to High Tail it out of there". So we left. We then were able to get permission from the Giant supermarket next door but the property manager told us we need to have a formal lease agreement. She knows who we are and asked what happened with Walmart I told her what i suspected was the reason and she confirmed by apologizing to me because this man had contacted her first demanding she throw us out immediately for the reasons I mentioned above and she had to refer him to Walmart. We have had an out pouring of support from our customers and the community. Catonsville, Md has the largest muslim community in Baltimore County. It is a very diverse area and a large percent of Walmart's customers are muslims. We were very disheartened that this could happen. Walmart doesn't owe us anything but after being there for over a year I felt we at least deserved an explanation. We have since started a petition to bring Ariana back to Walmart. The purpose of this petition is not to DEMAND Walmart let Ariana come back, although if that happens it would be great, we loved being there. But instead to show Walmart that for every person who harbor's hatred with out even knowing who we are, there are hundreds more that love and want us at Walmart. We worked so hard to provide the best service and food we can to the community that we also reside in, and to be treated this way really hurts. We will continue to remain in the neighborhood no matter what happens. I have left the link for the petition if any of your members wish to help us in this cause. Thanks so much. http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/bring-ariana-kabob-grill-back-to-catonsville-md-walmart.html

Hi, my name is Theresa and i am the owner and operator of Ariana Kabob Grill along with my husband and sons. Next week will be our one year anniversary. I would like to thank the Catonsville, Md community for receiving us with such enthusiasm. We are so grateful for the positive reviews and feed back we have received. I would like to take this opportunity to elaborate a little more about who we are. Ariana's specialty is Kabobs and Rice. We offer Chicken breast kabobs, our lamb is from the leg of lamb and our beef kabobs are cut from the loin strip. We have a white basmati rice seasoned with cumin which is served with our platters and a kabli palau rice that comes with the kabobs. In addition to kabobs we have a large variety of halal items on the menu. I tried to create a Halal menu that would appeal to everyone and still be able to execute in a food truck. We have the all popular gyro over rice and seasoned chicken over rice (which is quite different from the push carts in Baltimore). we also have Butter chicken, Tilapia fish platters and sandwiches, grilled chicken, cheese steaks, burgers, and salads. With exception of our gyro and seasoned chicken which is cooked 2-3 times daily everything else is cooked fresh to order. This can mean there will be a small wait time but there is plenty of parking and we encourage our customers to call ahead of time. I would like to address the Chowhound thread that Don mentioned here regarding our burgers. This thread was created the first month we opened. I completely agree that our burgers were not up to par. We took the criticism seriously and immediately began to find a solution. After several tries,(we don't have a large variety of halal beef cuts to choose from) we have come up with a much improved burger, We have been grinding our burgers in house for about 8 months now and have received good feed back. I would like to thank Don for creating this wonderful website and giving me the opportunity to introduce Ariana to the Don Rockwell community. If there is anything I neglected to address in my post please feel free to let me know. To jbittnerpilar I am so happy you enjoyed your meal and hope to meet you in the future.