Launching La Table is more than opening a restaurant, it’s making a meaningful, long-term investment. With limited savings, choosing the wrong location would turn a dream into a risk. To avoid guessing, I turned to data.

The goal was simple: find a town in Lebanon where visitors (locals and tourists) already show strong interest, yet the restaurant market remains underserved.

Lebanon’s tourism and investment patterns often move in opposite directions. Some towns attract visitors but receive no development, while others receive projects despite having little demand.

For a new restaurant, this imbalance makes it difficult to know where genuine opportunity lies. I needed a location that is not saturated or speculative, but strategically overlooked.

Step 1: Scanning the Chaos for Opportunity – Lebanon as a whole

The national view shows two categories:
High-tourism towns with no initiatives (Blue): attractive but saturated with existing restaurants.
Funded towns with low tourism (Orange): received investments but struggle with attracting visitors.

We’re looking for a true blue diamond: a high-potential (human intuition), high-traffic location (tourism index), with unserved demand (number of restaurants, 0 project initiated).

Step 2: The first zoom – Targeting Zgharta
We must narrow the focus from the whole country to a high-potential region. We start by targeting the beautiful Zgharta District.
Safe option: a district away from saturation (low competition) yet rich in natural beauty and tourism interest (mid to high). It becomes the logical next step for deeper exploration.
(Action for Viewer: Please use the District filter and select Zgharta District.)

 

Step 3: The second zoom – Finding the Restaurant Gap
One town rises above the rest:
Beit Obeid, Zgharta District

• High tourism demand (index: 9).
• Low supply: few restaurants exist (1 restaurant), minimal competition.
• No recent initiatives, meaning the opportunity remains untouched.

 

Visitors are already coming, but the market has not responded. This is exactly the type of gap a new restaurant should fill.
In Beit Obeid, high demand, low competition, and authentic natural beauty come together, making it a place where La Table can truly belong and elevate the town’s charm. By moving from a national overview to a focused district analysis, the data revealed a location where potential and opportunity meet.

But beyond numbers, choosing Beit Obeid reflects vision, intuition, and respect for place.

 

Overall view: