Cava Mezze celebrates 20 years

All right, welcome back into Good Day D.C. We're in the Good Day Cafe now with local culinary staple. Kava Mezze is gearing up to celebrate a big milestone, their 20th year anniversary or 20-year anniversary. To ring it in, the restaurant is bringing back popular dishes dating back to their 2006 opening. We're going to make one of those dishes this morning with the co-owners. We have Ike and Dimitri here, a big menu highlight for this dish. You all are now offering again to commemorate this 20-year anniversary. Congratulations and welcome in, guys. Thank you. Thank you so much. You're welcome. So, Con is awesome. Big fan here, for starters. But for those who may not be familiar with the early days of the restaurant, talk about what that was like. Yeah, I mean, for us, you know, we grew up children of Greek immigrants, so food was a big part of our lives. You know, dinner on a Monday was like an event. You know, it was about sharing and getting together with family and friends. And so we wanted to bring that, our culture, to... Our restaurant, you know, because we worked in restaurants our entire lives. Dimitri was a chef, I was a server, along with Ted. And we did mezze, which is sharing, the way you can sit down together with family and friends and enjoy a meal. And right now you're plating this beautiful dish. Tell us what's on it and how this is a part of it. So we call this Mr. Fred's dish. Mr. Fred was our first customer ever and still comes to the restaurant today a few times a week. And one of his favorite things is swordfish, and I made this for him one day, and then we put it on the menu as Mr. Fred's fish, and we brought it back. You know, for him, and just to show, you know, all the loyalty and support we get from the community. That's awesome. What was his reaction when he learned that one of the dishes is... I mean, it was honor. He loves it. He brags about it, tells everybody to come in and try his fish. Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's really fantastic. Yeah, a big seller, too, right now as well. What are some of the other dishes that you all have on display here? So here we have a braised lamb shoulder with orzo and some Kefalograviera. It's like a softer Parmesan cheese. And then here we have our Our dips, we have our hummus with chickpea salad, we have our very popular harissa, and our crazy feta with roasted jalapeno and roasted red onion. And this is, again, one of the classics that was on the menu day one. I have a huge love for fried chicken. So just to make it our style, I did a little Greek yogurt, some walnuts, and some Greek honey. Wow. When it comes to just the originality, some of the dishes, I know there's a blend of tradition and some of your favorites, but how do you all just keep things so fresh? And so how do you continue to evolve? What's the secret? Well, I mean, that's a big part of what we wanted to do. You know, we take our sourcing very seriously. And it's funny because this dish was an extremely popular dish on our menu, but we had to remove it because we couldn't source the chicken at the time when COVID hit. So that was a reason why it came off the menu. And when When we finally found out that we could Do it again. It was one of the reasons I started thinking about bringing back some of these dishes for the anniversary menu. Yeah. Okay, so this is a part of the initial restaurant. Then you have the fast casual concept that so many people know and love. And boy, there's so many different restaurants now. Um... Talk about, are there other ways you are going to commemorate the 20-year anniversary through the Fast Casual concept, or? Nothing, because that's actually, the timing's a little different with those two, because it opened up a few years later, but, you know, it was the inspiration for a lot of that, the dips and spreads, obviously, which you know and love at Cava, but, you know, we do have a couple other restaurants as well in the area, and we're opening one, hopefully, around the same time, which is kind of crazy, and we're trying to see if we can actually coordinate the dates with the first, the original restaurant, but it's getting close, hopefully we can do that. Yeah, Italian. Yes. Let's talk Italian for a moment. You have another concept that's coming. Tell us about it. Yeah, Maurizio's is going to hopefully open up this month, a couple weeks here in Potomac at the Potomac Village. It's at the old Renato space, and we're excited about it. It's going to be a beautiful spot and another, hopefully, awesome neighborhood restaurant that people can come and enjoy. How exciting. Oh, my goodness. Okay, what was some of your favorite dishes coming up and just sort of, you know, something that reminds you of your family? I think this is the the one right here. This is the perfect Sunday dish. My mother and a lot of Greek moms out there made this every Sunday, and especially in the fall and winter because it's such a comforting dish. Yeah. And I think, you know, the lamb that we use from Elysian Farm, which is, you know, local and domestic. So I really love this dish. This is the one with hints of cinnamon. Okay, and tell us the name of it one more time for those watching. This is lamb kapama. Lamb kapama. Yeah. Awesome. All right, and how about you? Well, I was going to say, unfortunately, I was going to say the same thing, because all the braised dishes I grew up with that were just so traditional, and that's what's fun about the menu is that it has a mix of traditional dishes like this and then, you know, fried chicken done the Greek way with some yogurt, honey, and walnuts. Yeah. What would you say are just some of the main staples when it comes to just really great Greek dishes that you absolutely Absolute must-have. It really just sets the dishes apart. Well, it really starts with the ingredients. I mean, you touched on that. But, you know, traditional things, like even a simple salad, like a village salad, it's, you know, it's tomatoes, cucumbers, feta. But the difference between the two is that if you use great tomatoes, great cucumbers, and a delicious feta with the olive oil that we use, which is a fantastic one, it tastes that much better. Very fresh. I love that. Okay. The secret to just longevity. I know a lot of people are watching right now, especially those who are in the culinary industry, and it's just how. Yeah, I think for us, it's listening to your guests. Um, seeing what is going on out there in the world, going out and experiencing other things for yourself, and then bringing that back to your guests. So I think we just like to look at kind of everything and just stay in tune with people. I think generosity also, and people say service and hospitality. I think service is a job. Hospitality is something that you strive for. But it has to be built in your culture, that spirit of generosity, that spirit of hospitality. It's something that we believe in, and it's from the top down in all of our companies. And it's how... How we start and what we believe in. Awesome. Well, how long is Mr. Fred's dish over here? How long is that going to be available? So I'm thinking these will probably make their way on the just regular menu because the support's been awesome. But they will be available until the end of the year for sure. For sure, yeah. But it's been just a couple days and been extremely popular. So we'll see. Awesome. Okay, well, how can people get more information and also, yeah, just come out and enjoy? Yeah, please visit our site, yeah, kavamazed.com or wildgoathospitality.com, So restaurant group website, you'll have access to all of our concepts there. Wonderful. All right, Dimitri, I thank you guys so much. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Thank you very much. All right, we're back with more Good Day 4 after this. Stay with us.