Turkish cafe East West opens in Tysons, with hookah bar to come

Tysons has a new hangout option for those looking to spend a summer day chatting over a cup of coffee.

Last week, East West Restaurant opened its second cafe at 1992 Chain Bridge Road, the former home of the Italian Da Domenico, which closed in November 2020 after 39 years of business.

Despite its easily missed location on a service road next to the westbound Route 123 ramp onto Route 7, the Turkish cafe had a good first week in Tysons, manager Osman Agba told FFXnow. Many patrons were Muslims celebrating Eid al-Adha, the annual festival that fell between July 9 and 13 this year.

“This weekend is very busy,” Agba said on Saturday (July 15). “It’s the first time coming for some, and it’s very busy now. I like it.”

Agba is working on East West with his brother, owner Mehmet Coskun, who opened the other existing location in Clarendon in December 2019. The business originally launched as Central Coffee Bar in Rosslyn in 2017, though that location has closed.

Plans for a Tysons venue have been in the works since 2019, but no specific location had been identified at that time.

Agba says East West was drawn to Tysons for the area’s sizable Arabic community.

In addition to serving coffee and tea, the cafe specializes in Turkish breakfast, including an omelette with soujuk — a type of spicy, fermented sausage — and kavurmali yumurta, a dish of braised beef and eggs. It also offers sandwiches and burgers, wraps, pastries, salads, and dinner entrees like lamb chops and köfte, or Turkish meatballs.

On top of that, East West will venture into new territory this fall with the addition of a hookah bar in the building’s basement. That is expected to open in September or October, Agba says.

The business hopes to expand to more sites in the future, but the search for new locations won’t start immediately.

“Maybe next year, we’re going to look somewhere, Alexandria, Georgetown,” Agba said. “We will see.”