Photograph by Martha Williams
At Bey, the upbeat music filling the dining room sets a festive tone, even on a Wednesday night. The real celebration, though, begins when the dishes hit the table: The fluffy hummus serves as a canvas for warmly spiced beef shawarma served on top, smoked eggplant blankets a layer of tangy labneh, and the za’atar braised short rib entices with its savory aroma. Opened just over a year ago in Roswell, Bey stands out for its Lebanese dishes made from scratch by chef and co-owner Marc Mansour.
Middle Eastern cuisine is usually painted with a broad stroke, but the region comprises many cuisines and cultures. In Atlanta, many of the best known high-end Middle Eastern restaurants, like Rumi’s Kitchen, Yalda, and Delbar, are Persian, and they specialize in rice dishes and grilled meats. “Lebanon is on the Mediterranean, not like Iran,” says co-owner Chaouki Khoury.
There are some dishes that overlap between Middle Eastern and Mediterranean regions—hummus and falafel, for example—but what sets Lebanese food apart is its focus on bright, citrusy flavors and on shared plates known as mezze. “In Lebanon, when you go out with friends, all you have is a whole table of tapas, and everybody’s sharing,” says Khoury. “You don’t have your own plate. So that concept of ‘This is mine and don’t touch it,’ it doesn’t exist.”
Mansour never planned on opening a Lebanese restaurant. He grew up in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, and cooked with his mom as a child. “I still remember she used to make cake, and when she zested the lemons and used the hand mixer, I was always with her working on a stepladder,” recalls Mansour. He attended culinary school in Lebanon, which taught Lebanese and French techniques (Lebanon was under French control from 1920 to 1943), but after moving to the United States in 2001 found himself drawn more to the administrative side of hospitality. Monsour obtained a business degree, and instead of working as a chef, he ran culinary programs for major hotels, such as the Four Seasons Atlanta. “But there was always an itch to open a restaurant the way it is in Lebanon,” he says.
Eventually, Mansour hit a wall with corporate catering and decided it was time to take the plunge into restaurant ownership. His real-estate agent showed him around Roswell, and when they found the space in the Southern Post development, Mansour was sold.
Mansour and Khoury designed Bey—the name is a nod to Beirut’s airport code—to reflect Lebanese culture without stereotypical imagery. The dining room features blush-pink walls and green accents, which calls to old Lebanese homes. “We didn’t want the restaurant to be too ethnic, because when you go eat in a restaurant in Lebanon, there are no camels on the walls. There are no rugs hanging on the walls,” says Mansour.
Family recipes inspired much of the menu, including the juicy, smoky chicken taouk. “It’s a meal every Sunday back at home,” says Mansour. “We get this small grill with charcoal, and then you cook it on charcoal, so it’s delicious.” At Bey, the yogurt-marinated chicken gets the same treatment and is served with creamy toum (a garlic sauce) and crispy potatoes.
For Mansour, opening Bey has been a professional and personal homecoming of sorts. “People who come to the restaurant and have been to Lebanon always say, ‘Oh my God, it feels like when we were going out in Beirut,’” he says. “That’s exactly the best compliment for us. It’s nice.”
This article appears in our January 2026 issue.
