Chocolate Euphoria brings crepes with Middle Eastern flair; temporarily closes for license issue
Chocolate Euphoria opened an Oxford location earlier this month but hit a snag due to food licensing issues. The owners hope to resolve the issue quickly and keep serving Middle East-inspired crepes.
Oxford’s newest restaurant has hit a snag.
Two weeks ago, Sami Abu-Attiyeh and Yousef Zayed soft-launched Chocolate Euphoria, a dessert crepe restaurant with Middle Eastern-inspired flavors. On April 14, Butler County Environmental Health Director Carrie Yeager ordered the owners to shut down the Oxford location. A cease and desist letter on the door states that the restaurant was operating without a valid license.
According to the Ohio Revised Code, owners must obtain licenses to operate food service operations. Even if business owners have a license for one location, they must obtain a separate license for each operation.
Despite the setback, Abu-Attiyeh and Zayed said they’re looking forward to reopening with the proper license soon, after obtaining the paperwork. When the store is operating again, its hours will be 1 p.m. to midnight seven days a week.
Abu-Attiyeh and Zayed were childhood friends who grew up together in Oxford. Now, they are full-time University of Cincinnati students and co-owners of Chocolate Euphoria, which began with a Cincinnati location before expanding to Oxford.
Chocolate Euphoria’s menu features a variety of crepes, coffees, milkshakes and chocolate bars. Its most popular items are the Nutella Berry Bliss Crepe and chocolate bars.
Abu-Attiyeh, a junior business major, said he picked up the restaurant concept while living in Dubai. Then, after years of not seeing each other and an unexpected reunion, Abu-Attiyeh brought his idea to senior information technology major Zayed.
“I told him one day that there was this huge trend going on in Dubai,” Abu-Attiyeh said. “All these crepes and desserts where they fill them up with chocolate. I said we need to open one in Cincinnati.”
Together, they did just that. Their first location opened on 37 Street last year and is still in business today. Zayed said that since Chocolate Euphoria was so successful, he was eager to open another.
“I started stressing that I wanted a second store,” Zayed said. “After your first store succeeds, you start wanting more and more.”
Abu-Attiyeh and Zayed said they picked Oxford for their second location because they were familiar with the city and its college culture fit their business model. Zayed said they are considering opening another Chocolate Euphoria near the University of Dayton for this same reason.
“[Starting a business] is best to do while you're young,” Abu-Attiyeh said. “So if you fail, you don’t have kids, you don’t have a bunch of priorities, so it’s not a huge loss.”
