For years, Folie Douce has sat dark during the lunchtime rush, conceding defeat to the adjacent Stars Burgers — where HSU students and Humboldt locals congregate every afternoon for fast, affordable food on the go.

But take an afternoon drive down Arcata’s bustling G Street today and you might find that some of those hungry college students crossing in front of the Highway 101 onramp have substituted their burgers for equally portable and affordable shawarma sandwiches.

In November, Arcata’s longtime staple for mildly pretentious fine dining was taken over by new owner and head chef Reda Salhi, an experienced restaurateur who’s worked kitchens in France, Italy and South America. And while Salhi has decided to keep the name, the restaurant’s menu and store hours have seen major changes within the last month or so to suit its new Lebanese and Moroccan themes.

While wood-fired oven pizzas are still cooked to order, old options such as duck confit and halibut pomegranate ceviche have been replaced with more rustic Mediterranean fare, including lamb burgers, duck tajine and fattoush salad.

The 48-year-old French-Algerian chef’s journey to Arcata has been an unlikely one. After studying in Europe, he opened his first restaurant — a pizzeria — in Quito, Ecuador.

“I was fascinated by Italian food and I wanted to learn to make pizza,” Salhi told the Outpost. “I spent about three years learning how to make pizza and pasta. It’s not easy when you don’t know the language, but I mastered it.”

But after a lukewarm response from customers, Salhi was looking to change things up.

“I wasn’t making enough money to survive; then I realized [Quito had] no Lebanese food, no Turkish food or Mediterranean food in general,” he said. “I said, ‘This is an opportunity, but I don’t know how to cook Lebanese food.’”

So he got to work, and after a month of honing his best Lebanese recipes he rebranded the restaurant overnight.

“At that time, I had never heard of hummus, shawarma or kibbeh,” he said. “So I bought a book and started practicing. Then one day, I closed the pizza shop at 10 p.m. and started remodeling, changed the restaurant sign — everything. The following day I opened as a Lebanese restaurant. It was crazy but I did it.”

Salhi said his new restaurant, El Arabe, was an instant success. So much so that he opened up two more locations in Ecuador and became a major supplier of pita bread in the area. Then, after a decade of success spanning the ‘80s and ‘90s, Salhi said he nearly lost it all.

“In ‘96, the country had presidential elections and the newly elected president [Abdalá Jaime Bucaram Ortiz] did terrible,” he said. “The economy collapsed. The currency collapsed. Everything was going in the wrong direction.”

Amid the financial crisis, Salhi said a large sum of his savings was frozen by the Ecuadorian government while the value of the country’s former currency, the sucre, plummeted. Eventually the sucre was replaced by the American dollar, and what money Salhi had left became nearly worthless.

Defeated, he decided to sell his restaurant and move to the U.S., where he worked as a nurse for 12 years, eventually settling in New York. But he never lost his urge to cook.

“I love nursing, but my passion has always been cooking,” Salhi said. “I love cooking and that’s what I do at home in my leisure time.”

So when Salhi’s daughter moved to Arcata in August to attend HSU, the well-traveled chef decided to move once again and began looking for a new restaurant to make his own.

“Her mom also wanted to come here, so I thought about it and I decided to follow my daughter,” he said. “I thought, ‘Maybe this is the time to come back to what I love most.’ Before coming to Arcata, I started searching and I found an ad for Folie Douce. I asked my daughter to go check it out and she said, ‘I know this place; it’s the most famous restaurant in Humboldt.’ Then I said, ‘I think this is the place. I’m gonna buy it.’”

A few months into his new Arcata life, Salhi says he’s still adjusting to the culture shock of living behind the Redwood Curtain.

“I’ve been to Southern California before and I thought, ‘It’s California; it’s the same thing.’ I was wrong,” he said. “To be honest with you, it’s a different world. It’s hard for us coming from New York. People are teaching me every day how things are done here. It’s a lot to take in, to learn this weird, new, unique style.”

And while he’s still learning to embrace the weirdness, Salhi says he plans to stay put and continue to bring his own unique flavor to Humboldt County.

“I plan to stay,” he said. “The area is amazing. I love it. No doubt. Humboldt County is beautiful.”

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CORRECTION: At ease, filet mignon fans! Folie tells us they will still have the roquefort and wasabi filets mignon. Some of the old favorites may come back from time to time, as well. The Outpost regrets the error.