Photos by Cherrie Hanson
Fady Atari, owner of three Fil Fil restaurants, serves up high quality Mediterranean meals in a fast-casual setting.
In recent years, Downtown Milwaukee has seen a surge in culturally specific late-night dining options opening for business. One such example is FiL FiL, 700 W. Wisconsin Ave., serving authentic, halal Mediterranean cuisine fast-casual style on one of the city’s busiest corridors, making it an unmissable stop for delicious bowls, sandwiches, wings and more. FiL FiL prides itself on its healthy, customizable menu where everything is made from scratch.
Owner Fady Atari named the restaurant after the Arabic word filfil, which means “pepper.” True to the name, FiL FiL’s food can be made considerably spicy using potent Gazan spices. This is further illustrated by the grinning anthropomorphic pepper mascot on the dining room wall, drawn by Atari himself.
“I’m a big guy, and I like spicy,” he says, smiling. “He takes from my face, and you can see it.”