It could be shakshuka or schnitzel. Maybe falafel or sabich, the popular Israeli street food sandwich stuffed with fried eggplant, boiled eggs, chopped salad, hummus and tahini in a pita pocket.
But for Hana Shavi, it all comes down to that one glorious, gratifying moment.
“I love watching people put that first bite into their mouth,” she says, beaming. “That gives me my — thing. I just love it. I want people to come and enjoy and have a good time, while blowing their mind with the flavor.”
A Stevenson resident, Hana Shavi — who was born in Poland and raised in Israel — is the matriarch of the family that owns Yossef’s Laffa-Milia, a new kosher restaurant in Owings Mills.
Located at 10210 S. Dolfield Road near Wegmans supermarket in Foundry Row, Yossef’s opened last March in the site of a former vegan café. Supervised by the Star-K kashrut certification group, Yossef’s features a menu largely consisting of homemade Israeli-style dishes.
The restaurant is the outgrowth of a food truck business of the same name operated by the family for four years. The truck was originally based across the street from Seven Mile Market and later in the parking lot of Star-K’s headquarters in Pikesville.
Besides family members, Yossef’s employs a staff of five, including food truck workers who sell prepared menu items at community gatherings and family events.
“Customers [of the food truck] were always asking for more,” says Yossef Shavi, Hana’s Israeli-born husband of four decades and namesake of the business. “We received wonderful feedback. The demand was very high. So we talked about having a restaurant for a long time.”
The family looked at multiple locations in the Pikesville/Park Heights community — where the bulk of local Jews who keep kosher reside — but never found the ideal space.
“We really wanted to stay in Pikesville, but it just didn’t work out,” says Alona Shavi-Tajer, daughter of Yossef and Hana. “Someone mentioned this space and we drove out to look at it. It only took 12 minutes to get here, and we peeked in the windows. It was very messy, but we could absolutely see the potential. We just knew what could be done here.”
Crucial to the bistro’s long-term success is maintaining the food’s quality level — all dishes are made fresh daily, the family says — and by appealing to a general clientele of all backgrounds.
“There are a lot of offices and businesses in this area,” says Hana Shavi. “It might take some time, but we want to get the word out and grow and expand. We have a lot of vegan and vegetarian options because many people want to eat healthy. There are not a lot of healthy sit-down restaurants around here. We believe if you serve good, fresh food, people will come.
“Everything I cook here, I cook at home,” she says. “If I won’t eat it, it won’t be served here.”
Adds her daughter: “To become successful here, we want to serve delicious food to everyone — no matter who it is — and have them enjoy their time and come back.”
On a recent weekday afternoon, Yossef’s buzzed with a steady stream of lunchtime business. Middle Eastern music played in the background while customers placed their orders at the counter or sat down at tables.
Adorning the wall were hamsas, a Hebrew sign bearing the prayer for washing hands before meals, and a Middle Eastern-style rug. At times, some customers chatted in Hebrew with the owners while enjoying heaping portions of shawarma, hummus and pargiyot, skewered and grilled boneless chicken thighs. The aroma of freshly brewed Turkish coffee filled the room.
With her dark hair pulled back into a ponytail and wearing an apron, Shavi-Tajer, a Pikesville mother of two, walked around the room, smiled at patrons and asked if they were enjoying their meals. Behind the counter, her father — a slender man with short, gray hair, jeans and a black kippah who previously worked in the automobile industry (“I decided 48 years was enough!”) — concentrated on making falafel balls.
“We’ve always loved hosting and feeding people. We’ve always been like that,” says Shavi-Tajer, who was born in the Israeli city of Ramat HaSharon and whose family moved here in 1991. “Someone came in the other day and ate something and cried. They said it was just like their mother used to make it in Israel, and that made me cry.
“We love our community, so you want to be a place where people come and celebrate,” she says. “People come into your life and stay, and this is a gift. We feel very fortunate and blessed to be able to receive that. We’re a family, and everyone who comes here is part of our family.”
That doesn’t mean that running a restaurant in an era when a large percentage of food operations fail isn’t a daunting challenge.
“This is a very, very tough business,” says Shavi-Tajer. “We’re always thinking about work, even when not working. It’s exhausting. The days are long and hard. But we have a great team. We’re only hiring superstars, and we’re there for each other. It helps that we love what we do. We just look at the hard stuff as a blessing because we prayed for this and asked for it.”
At a time when antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments are running rampant, Shavi-Tajer admits her family occasionally worries about safety issues at their establishment.
“Look, it’s a crazy world and you never know what to expect from people,” says Shavi-Tajer, who belongs to the Chabad Israeli Center of Baltimore and Beit Yaakov-Baltimore Sephardic Center. “All we can do is treat people with kindness and respect, and hope for the same. We know what we’re doing this for.”
So far, the Shavi family says feedback from the community about Yossef’s Laffa-Milia has been tremendously positive and appreciative.
“We’re still trying to get our bearings, but so far business has been great,” says Shavi-Tajer. “We’re seeing a lot of familiar faces, as well as new faces. People have been very supportive.”
Shavi-Tajer, who oversees the social media platforms for the business, says she was tickled when someone who recognized Yossef Shavi from the restaurant’s Facebook page approached him recently at a gas station and said they planned to drop by the restaurant.
“We make these videos and post them because people love to see what goes on behind-the-scenes. So now my father is a big social media star and is recognized in the community,” says Shavi-Tajer, laughing. “You’ve got to have some fun. It’s all part of the journey.”
For information, visit yossefslaffamilia.com.
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