Owner of Middle Eastern restaurant Old School in Palos Hills brings a personal touch to dining

At Old School, a Middle Eastern restaurant specializing in lamb dishes in suburban Palos Hills, dinner often begins with an early-morning message in a WhatsApp group chat.

Each morning, owner and chef Mohd Mahd sends his roughly 70 regulars a list of what he is cooking that day. They reply with orders for pickup, reserving most of the restaurant’s roughly 60-100 daily meals before the doors even open. There is no fixed menu and the business does not operate like a typical dine-in or carryout restaurant. What is offered changes day to day and is dictated by customers who span the Middle Eastern diaspora. Dish requests can be put in for the following day by anyone. Walk-ins are welcome and are offered a menu set by the previous day’s requests. The most expensive dish tops out at $32 for a 3-pound, bone-in lamb.

The restaurant has gained a loyal following (with 730 reviews on Google, it has an almost-perfect 4.9 star rating) for its unconventional business.

“People can expect somebody that’s cooking this food with passion, with honesty, no cheating, the right amount, the right way, and the right flavor,” said Sammy Daaboul, of Orland Park, and a customer since 2017. “What he promises he fulfills, bottom line you don't like it, he will say, ‘I'm sorry. Here’s your money back.’ He’ll give you a rain check for another dish to give it one more try. But 99.9% once you enter his premises, you are hooked.”

However, diners considering a first visit may want to wait until after Ramadan, the restaurant’s busiest season.

During the ninth and holiest month of the Islamic calendar, when Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset, Old School operates less as a traditional eatery and more like what Mahd calls a “food club.” He limits his choose-your-own-adventure ordering format to regular customers only in order to meet the surge in demand for catering orders and the rush to have everything ready by iftar, the evening meal after breaking fast. Outside of Ramadan, Old School prepares an average of 125-150 meals a day for the restaurant and catering orders. That number jumps to 400 and can go as high as 600 during the holy month.

“Most of my customers expect their food to be ready around sunset,” Mahd said. “They let me know as early as possible what they want, because they know the later they call the least amount of options they would get. Usually around four o’clock, I’m already all reserved. There’s nothing to offer.”

New customers are offered the option to purchase one of the extra meals Mahd makes for walk-ins. Even the modest 22-seat dining room (where there is no waitstaff and tipping is not allowed) requires a reservation to dine-in during Ramadan.

Old School specializes in lamb dishes, with two staples offered daily: “old-fashioned lamb,” a two-and-a-half-pound dish of slow-cooked lamb shoulder Mahd says he invented to “keep off the competition,” and stuffed lamb neck, both on a bed of saffron-tinted rice.

Two or three additional dishes are also available. Orders placed earlier in the day are picked up or eaten at the restaurant. He has his staples on the menu but (almost) any Middle Eastern cuisine a customer requests is fair game.

“Mostly lamb, anything that has to do with lamb, and not everything,” Mahd said when asked about a Reddit claim that he will make any kind of Arab food. “The word ‘Middle Eastern’ cuisine is very, very big. When you say the Middle East, you're talking about Greek, Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Egypt. I’ve learned a little bit from 30-40 countries.”

Born in Jerusalem, Mahd arrived in the U.S. as a baby, not yet 1 year old, while his parents pursued an education. They returned to the Middle East when he was 6. He studied human nutrition and food science at the University of Jordan as an undergraduate. Mahd found his way back to Chicago at 23 and went on to complete a graduate degree in food processing at the Illinois Institute of Technology. He began Old School as a way to create ideal conditions to raise a family.

“I wanted a job that serves my family objectives,” said Mahd, a father of seven. “Having my own business means my wife could come and have a cup of coffee. I could teach my kids chemistry, biology and physics while cooking. Cooking is actual biology and chemistry combined. Seasoning is nothing but chemistry. So that’s practical training, and my kids would face life under my direct supervision versus sending them anywhere to learn the value of adult skills.”

He usually goes to the restaurant at 9 a.m. but during Ramadan he is in as early as 4 a.m. to begin food prep. Mahd oversees the whole cooking process, including grinding his own spices, rendering fats and breaking down meats. On average, he prepares 60-100 meals a day plus additional catering orders (multiple orders for 100 people are common throughout the month), with the help of six staff members, including his oldest children, two sons who are 21 and 22 years old.

“I do not hire cooks at all,” said Mahd. “Every single bite my customers eat is actually seasoned by my hand, by me, and monitored and controlled by my boys.”

With a pantry stocked with cardamom, turmeric, cloves, bay leaves and allspice, Mahd seasons and marinates lamb and selected meats the day before they are set to be sold. They are placed into the oven to roast for five hours to ensure a juicy, tender finish of sweet and spicy flavors.

Mahd prefers changing up the dishes regularly instead of offering a static menu, which he said would lead to food waste or require reheating leftovers. “That’s the only way to ensure absolute, utmost freshness,” said Mahd.

For this reason, he also places limits on orders during Ramadan. Taking every order would require him to staff up and he would be unable to guarantee that what he serves was touched by his own hand. That would put him at odds with his old-school approach to food — the reason behind the restaurant’s name.

“I truly believe in the old school of doing business,” said Mahd. “You take pride in your production, and you feel bad if you fail. There are few things more personal than food and this is personal, it’s not business.”