Turning Japanese

Driving down a narrow road off Monot Street in Ashrafieh, you find a French style, 1920s building with a purple neon sign displaying the word ‘Noa’ from a first floor apartment. The trendy and ultra-modern pub-restaurant serving Japanese cuisine is the last thing you would expect inside such a building, but this is one of Noa’s many charming twists.  Not a newcomer to this business, Fadi Saba, owner of Noa, founded the Sodeco area nightspot Zinc in 1997. More recently, he wanted to create a place that reflected his maturity. “After all these years, I cannot start a small project, nor can I cannibalize myself and recreate Zinc,” explains Saba, and so Noa came to be. Saba uses the words “food, booze and mood” to describe Noa and says his concept is an even blend of the three, a cross between a pub and a restaurant.  Though such blends can