The Family Behind Terra Mediterranean Brings Authentic Mexican Cuisine to Fort Worth With A New Restaurant

A new restaurant for authentic Mexican cuisine, La Cabrona, has debuted at Artisan Circle. It comes from the family behind Fort Worth’s Terra Mediterranean, which recently reopened after closing in 2019.

Adam and Rosaria Shanaa, and their daughter Leena, opened their first Cowtown restaurant, Terra, in 2010, but restaurants have been the family business for a long time. Leena Shanaa’s earliest memories revolved around her parents’ first Ali Baba location in Dallas.

“I would be there with my aunts and uncles,” she tells PaperCity. “It wasn’t a typical environment for kids, but it felt like home.”

She says those early years growing up with her two brothers in Dallas taught her the value of hard work and what running a family-owned business looks like from behind the scenes. She’s now the chief operating officer of La Cabrona, where she manages that restaurant and helps run nearby Terra Mediterranean, which reopened two months ago.

She says she draws strength from both sides of her family. Her dad is from Lebanon and her mother is from Monterrey, Mexico. Both cultures, she says, are based on strong family ties.

La Cabrona Builds on the Shanaa Family’s Monterrey Connections

After years of working in the family business which also includes an Ali Baba in Richardson and one in Monterrey, Mexico, and managing a fast food chain, Leena helped her family open La Cabrona last fall. Leena says her mother’s family recipes form the basis for the menu that sticks to authentic Mexican cuisine from the state of Nuevo León, Mexico.

“The food is from the north side of Mexico,” Rosario says. “It’s a little spicier. We use more dried peppers and more spice. We use [a skirt steak] called arrachera that’s rare here. They usually use regular beef, but arrachera is what we make every weekend over there. I tried to bring a little piece of Mexico.”

Leena says the new restaurant shares Terra’s focus on high-quality ingredients.

“Keeping it authentic is important to us,” she says. “When you come to La Cabrona, you feel like you are in Mexico. It’s a piece of Mexico in Fort Worth.”

For a real treat, she adds, come on Sunday for brunch where there’s a buffet and live mariachi music.

Longtime Customers Celebrate Terra’s Reopening

Terra Mediterranean has been reopened for eight weeks, and the response from longtime customers has been enthusiastic if not downright celebratory. After nearly a decade, the restaurant famed for its Mediterranean buffet closed its Fort Worth location about six years ago.

“People are so happy to be back,” says Adam, who founded the restaurant with his brother Jalal. “Their response has been unbelievable. People are coming in five or six times a week for lunch — pretty much every day. Everyone is coming back and loving everything.”

The reopening has brought back longtime customers who had built traditions around the restaurant, he adds.

What’s Next

Leena has big plans for La Cabrona and her family’s restaurants. With the help of her two brothers Marcus and Brandon, she is exploring new smartphone apps that offer discounts on meals near closing hours, which can reduce food waste and boost sales, she says. She’s also working to promote catering.

Adam and Rosario say they’ve handed many leadership decisions to their daughter who they say has proven to be both resourceful and reliable.

“I couldn’t run these restaurants without Leena and my two boys,” Adam says. “All three of them do an amazing job. She’s now our go-to for making decisions. She has taken over my job for the most part.”

After so many early years of missed holidays due to long restaurant hours, Rosario says, the sacrifices were worth it.

“I’m so glad that I brought them in so young to the restaurant business,” she adds. “I remember when they were teenagers and I made sure they helped out at the restaurant. I’m very proud of them.”