Byblos opened on Laurier East in 1989, started by Hemela Pourafzal and her brother Massoud, whose family came from Rasht in northern Iran. It began at roughly a third of its current size and grew into the room next door seven years later. Much of what fills it is family work: the tables were built by hand, the painted wall is Hemela's. Breakfast is the draw, built on a feta omelette heavy with dill, sweet bread, house jams, halva and Iranian tea, and it runs well into weekend afternoons. The rest of the day turns to Persian home cooking, with rotating tchelo and khoresh, yogurt boranis, koukou, purées like mirza ghassemi, stuffed rolls and pirojki. Dizi, the lamb and potato stew, is a Sunday evening fixture. Three generations have now worked the room.