Sihem Naghmouchi Benaich has closed her deli, which shared space with Taco King on W. Liberty. The Tunisian deli, named Sihem’s, was expensive to operate, and she decided the concept sat too uneasily alongside the inexpensive Mexican restaurant with which it shared space inside Tienda la Libertad, the Latino grocery store that she and her husband, Saber Naghmouchi, also own. “It’s not the right atmosphere. I would put [the Tunisian food] on real plates and serve it with silverware, because it’s expensive food to prepare and I use exotic, imported spices. We use paper and plastic for the Mexican. If I do it again, it’s got to be a real restaurant. I need people to pay $50 per table to recover the costs.” Besides, she says: “It’s busy here with just the Mexican food.” She says her next restaurant, if there is one, is more likely to be a Mexican restaurant in downtown Ann Arbor.
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