It’s ‘About Thyme’: Lebanese Bakery To Open in Harvard Square

About Thyme, a Lebanese fast-casual bakery, is set to open its first location in Harvard Square by early August — bringing saj-baked wraps, coffee, matcha, and labneh to the corner of Brattle and Mt. Auburn streets.

The storefront will open in a space previously split between two tenants, near Van Leeuwen’s, Daily Provisions cafe, and Chip City — all of which have opened in the past three years. The store will be the first restaurant in decades in the Square to serve specifically Lebanese cuisine.

The bakery’s founder, Taha A. Mikati said he never expected to enter the restaurant business. A Columbia University graduate who studied political science and spent a brief stint working on policy in the U.S. Senate, Mikati first pitched the idea for About Thyme while interning at the New York-based coffee chain Blank Street during his undergraduate years.

Raised in Lebanon and the United Kingdom, Mikati said businesses in the U.S. felt “transactional” in comparison with the markets and food stands he knew in Lebanon.

“How is it that two women could run the most efficient market stand in the Lebanese market,” he said,“but in the U.S. everything felt overly built, and more importantly, heavily transactional, and not relationship-based or charming in any way, shape, or form?”

Cambridge seemed like the perfect target to put down roots, Mikati said. Facing an oversaturated market in New York City, he said Harvard Square felt like a “built-in family,” with a young demographic that he hoped to reach.

“Everyone’s been so welcoming,” he said. “It really is a family, and it reminds me exactly why I chose this.”

Mikati said he hopes the bakery will walk a fine line, offering a simple menu that appeals to college students without being “intimidatingly authentic” or “overly Western.”

“It’s built around the saj, which is this conclave oven used for baking bread. You can bake these wraps on it, and it’s incredibly tasty, an incredibly popular dish in Lebanon as a whole,” Mikati said.

The menu’s food offerings include wraps inspired by manoush, traditionally a traditional Lebanese flatbread, with fillings ranging from a berry-based spice sumac chicken to spicy kafta, a ground-meat kebab. The labneh, a strained-yogurt spread, will be served with flavors including chili-crisp, pistachio-rose, and za’atar, a Middle Eastern herb blend.

Drawing upon his time at Blank Street, Mikati said he “wants food and drinks to be equal partners.”

“We have five wraps, five lemonades, five drinks, so it’s a pretty straightforward menu. But even if it’s small, we want our drinks to invite people in and to be a gateway into the cuisine that we’re serving,” he said. “Iced coffee and matcha is something that we all know and love.”

Though his focus is on developing a solid operational model for About Thyme’s flagship location, Mikati said he hopes to eventually expand across the East Coast — especially in college towns — before returning to New York.

“My goal is never to get ahead of ourselves and to focus on making sure that we build one good community before spreading the community and growing it even further,” Mikati said.

About Thyme’s 1 Brattle Square storefront is approved for 13 seats, with hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, according to city licensing records.

But Mikati said he has spoken to Harvard students and understands the demand for a late-night spot, following the lead of other late-night spots in the Square — including Joe’s Pizza, Felipe’s Taqueria, and El Jefe’s Taqueria.

“I hope that I can deliver on that promise,” he said.

Joseph Hoyek ’29, who lives in Beirut, Lebanon and is the only student from Lebanon in the Class of 2029, said he is looking forward to enjoying food from home within walking distance of campus.

“I don’t have to go to Boston,” he said. “It will remind me of home, it’ll bring joy to me.”

Hoyek said that his father used to carry Lebanese thyme in his suitcase when working abroad, and having the bakery nearby will bring a similar sense of comfort.

“I don’t have to pack it,” he said. “It’s about time we go and embrace our culture.”

—Staff writer Theresa F. Bartelme can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at theresabartelme.15. Follow her on X @theresabartelme.

—Staff writer Uy B. Pham can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at ubp.88. Follow him on X @uybpham.