Downtown Loveland clientele will have a new Lebanese-inspired food option early next year — shawarma! The Meat Revolution is currently under construction across the street from Sky Bear Brewing with a move-in date set for January 2022.
Owner Kiel Schuett said The Meat Revolution is taking over the location of Northern Colorado Karate, which closed after 30-plus years in business. Schuett’s parents own the building at 444 North Lincoln Ave. in Loveland and ran the karate school for 12 years until retirement.
Schuett originally wanted to open a shawarma food truck. “I was going down that path for a long time until my parents decided that they were going to close the karate school, and it opened up that space,” Schuett said. “It made sense to transition from the mobile version of the restaurant to a brick-and-mortar.”
Schuett opened a part-time catering business under the name Burned at the Spit from 2017-2019 to test the process and fine-tune recipes. Schuett previously worked as a police officer for 10 years and left law enforcement to pursue The Meat Revolution. “I had been working on the idea and the concept of doing that restaurant for a long time.”
The Meat Revolution will serve shawarma, which is thin slices of meat that have been stacked in a cone shape, roasted on vertical rotisserie, and then shaved to serve.
The Meat Revolution will offer doner kebobs featuring a more European-style beef and lamb and a Middle Eastern-style chicken shawarma as sandwich wraps, salads, rice bowls, and smothered French fries.
Beverage options will feature bottles and cans of local artisanal sodas, and alcoholic options may be added later. “The downtown area has 10-plus alcohol establishments that don’t serve food as their main product,” Schuett said. “So, my idea was to supplement the businesses that were there and provide food for the downtown area.”
The Meat Revolution has plans to serve from lunch to late night, closing an hour after downtown bars and breweries shut down. “I want to be the last place open in downtown at night for people to go to be their last stop.”
