ASPEN, Colorado — Bagel Bites in Aspen, that longtime staple for your morning pick-me-up, is about to become something entirely new — a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern eatery run by the same man who has brought you the falafel booth over the last three years at the Jazz Aspen-Snowmass festivals.

But before the wailing begins, consider this — Lior Lilah, the Israeli-born proprietor of the new restaurant, which is located at the Clark’s Market shopping center, said Monday he understands that some people really need their bagels and coffee to survive, and he will not disappoint them.

“We’ll have bagels all the time,” he pledged.

Lilah and his Argentine wife, Angie Torres, bought the Bagel Bites store April 4 from its former owners, Bill and Audrey Oglesby of Old Snowmass, who reportedly are moving out of the valley.

Lilah said the new store, called Sabra’s Deli, will continue to operate under a lease from the owner, M & W Properties. Sabra’s (pronounced sah-brah’s) is the word for a native-born Israeli Jew. Lilah was born in Israel but raised in France. Both Lilah and Torres have lived in Aspen for a decade.

With partner Daniel Ferguson, who is an architect from Carbondale, the couple plans to keep things as they are until the end of April, when they will close for a month or so to completely clean and renovate the space, repaint the walls and install new equipment and furnishings. They hope to open in late May or early June.

When they do, Lilah said, the space will feature a more open eating area with a new floor, but still have counter service along the back wall and on one side. He said he also is installing a line-cook area with an oven.

The menu, Lilah explained, will include falafel, a fried chickpea concoction that is so ubiquitous in the Middle East that in Egypt even McDonald’s has it on the menu — called, of course, McFalafel.

Also available will be numerous dishes such as humus and tahini, Moroccan salads, kemia and a kebab made of layered veal and lamb on a spit called charwarma.

“It’s going to be a real locally oriented place,” declared Lilah, calling the fare “Mediterranean with a Middle Eastern twist.”

Lilah, 33, has been in the restaurant business since he first managed a crêperie in France at the age of 19. After coming to Aspen a decade ago, he started as a busboy and worked his way up through line cook to waiter and manager, in such well-known local establishments as Wild Fig, Pacifica and Conundrum.

But owning his own place, he said, is “kind of a dream for me.”

And for falafel lovers, too.


jcolson@aspentimes.com