Young Roosevelt Island Reporters From The Child Center Of NY At PS/IS 217 After School Program Interview Local Mediterranean Eatery Owner And Baker Alon Kruvi - Reporters Learn How Sourdough Bread Is Made And Review Food
Adib Mansour, Director of The Citizen Project's Children, Youth & Education Initiative reports:
The Citizen Project’s Children, Youth & Education Initiative, is proud to present the 3rd interview featuring students from the Child Center of New York’s Fourth graders.
In an effort to introduce our youth to the vendors on the island, they will learn about the intricacies of their businesses and appreciate their owners’ commitment to Roosevelt Island. Over the past few weeks, we've identified all the Island vendors and we’re in the process of interviewing them, starting with Roosevelt Pups, then Fusion Salon, and now ME Mediterranean Eatery.
These 4th graders interviewed Alon Kruvi, owner and baker at ME Mediterranean Eatery:
- Martin,
- Aivan,
- Le Minh,
- Esther, and
- Orion.
During the visit to the restaurant, the students had a hands-on experience in making sourdough, learned the rules of the kitchen, and how to be the boss of the dough!
The project culminated in their becoming food critics. Like Anton Ego in Pixar's Ratatouille movie, the students tasted and described what they thought of the restaurant's chicken shawarma, falafel, homemade bread, hummus, and kafta.
Here's the Interview Transcript of Alon Kruvi, Owner of Mediteranean Eatery.
Martin: Hello Alon, we are very excited to interview you and find out about your childhood, your family, your business, and your future plans.
Aivan: Please tell us about your childhood and where did you grow up?
Alon: I was born not too far from where Adib is from. Do you know where that is? He's from Lebanon and I'm from the country right south of it which is called Israel; and that's where I was born a long time ago, in 1965. You know how long that was? A long time; it was 57 years ago. I was raised there until the age of 9, we moved to California; so I spent some time in California and then we went back to Israel, and then went back to New York. So I was always back and forth, back and forth between the United States and Israel. But this time around I've been here for the past 16 years and lived on Roosevelt Island for the past… almost eight years.
Le Minh: When and why did you move to Roosevelt Island?
Alon: So we lived on the Upper East Side which is right across the water, and we didn't know much about Roosevelt Island. We were looking for an apartment; we had just enough money to buy an apartment and we came and the amount of money that we had was not enough to buy anything basically in Manhattan, and one day we saw a little ad here. There was, at Roosevelt Island, a nice apartment for sale. We came here; we saw it; it was affordable. We loved the place from the second we walked on this island; we said it was so cute, and quiet, and then nice. And that's it… I guess our destiny showed us that we were going to live here.
Esther: Please tell us about your education.
Alon: I went to the University of “Life”. Do you know what the University of “life” is? It doesn't work for everyone but it does work sometimes. I have what they call ADHD if you guys know what that is: Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder; meaning I'm very fidgety and my concentration levels especially in school, and especially if something that I wasn't really into, did not last very well.
I was an okay student, very okay, very mediocre. I was not a good student. I found out later on in life that my way of learning is by observation, which is very important to learn. We have to learn so if you're good in school and you can understand, and you don't have any issues that prevent you from learning, then school is the way to go. My wife is a teacher and she enforced this.
The way I was able to learn is not through the university - I did go to three different universities- I tried and I dropped out after three months because I just couldn't do it. My way of learning, like I said, is by observation, and believe it or not, a lot of this I learned.
1) I am third-generation in this in the food business, so my dad had a lot to teach me.
2) I've worked with a lot of chefs in kitchens and restaurants and hotels, and stuff like that. I learned from experience by hands-on work.
Believe it or not -and this is something no one wants to hear today- but YouTube taught me a lot also there are a lot of professional people on YouTube who taught me a lot also. There are a lot of professionals on YouTube that taught me. Any interest that I had that I wanted to know … especially like making sourdough.. I did not go to baking school I kind of heard professional people explaining and lecturing and then took it to my corner and experimented. Through experimentation, I learned. So that's my education.
Orion: Are you married and do you have children?
Alon: I am married for the second time. I have three children and my wife has one so we kind of combine the families together so we have four -I wouldn't call them children because my youngest is 19 so she's already an adult, and my oldest is 29. They're still children, but they're big children.
Martin: What made you open this restaurant and why specifically the Mediterranean cuisine?
Alon: Ooh good question on that one. Okay, so I've been doing Mediterranean Cuisine forever. Like I said I'm third generation… my grandma started in Israel before it was even Israel. It was still the state of Palestine under the British mandate -I don't know if you guys ever heard about that. Before 1948 she already had a restaurant and my dad was I would say the number-one restaurateur in Israel in the past, from the 1970s probably to the early 2000s. He was really big and famous in Israel as a professional. I learned a lot from that.
I moved to New York 15 years ago to open up places that serve Falafel and at a certain point, we had 14 of them; from Philadelphia, to New Jersey, even in the city. I had food trucks. I had everything. We were struggling to make money because we weren't selling meat; my partner was vegetarian by religion, and we could not sell meat. The culture here asks for meat. People want to have their meat. We were basically not making money, so we ended up with just a couple. I added meat to them; they were very successful!
Then the pandemic hit. When the pandemic hit they all got destroyed in one day. My restaurants were in Midtown; nobody was in Midtown for six months. The landlords were still expecting rent. I could not pay the rent so I gave them back the keys. That was it! Right after that, I opened up a restaurant in New Jersey. I signed that deal right when the pandemic hit and then I built it and opened it through the pandemic. But the commute there was just too long; an hour and a half each way driving sometimes. It was exhausting. I didn't want to do it. I made my partner buy me out. I told him “if you don't buy me out, I'm going to shut it down”. So he was scared; he bought me out. I wanted to work close to home.
I live across the street and I opened this thing over here. It was available. The reason I did Mediterranean Cuisine? I wanted to do a bakery; only a bakery. I didn't want to do Mediterranean anymore because I've been doing Mediterranean for 30 years already, and I'm kind of over it. I wanted to move on in life and my wife persuaded me to do something that would be easy for me. She said “you do this with your eyes closed, why do you want to experiment on new things?” So I did the Mediterranean. But the fire in me was still burning to make the bakery… so this is where we are right now. I know we need a bakery on the Roosevelt Island and I love baking bread and that is why I’m here in this Mediterranean place!
Aivan: How do you plan your menu and do you change it? If so, how often?
Alon: menu planning comes, I think, from experience and demand. You want to hear what the customers are saying. So if a lot of customers are coming in and saying “do you have Falafel and you say no no no no no. You've got to want to have Falafel because that's the demand. So you kind of always put yourself in a position where the market is asking for. Because if you want to sell something that the market has no desire for, you’re not going to sell much. If I'm going to sell purple hats that say “I love Alon” on them, I don't know how many people want to buy them. But if I sell a hat that says Roosevelt Island is the best place in the world, maybe more people will want to buy them. It all depends on what people are looking for. So I assumed that Mediterranean food would work here because there's no Mediterranean food on the island. That is where I decided on this menu and then I use my repertoire of things that I know how to make and make them downstairs.
Speaking about that, let's go downstairs. I'm just going to wash my hands. you guys probably waiting on the table so we can sit and actually try this food and we'll continue with the questions there all right
Le Minh: It seems you have recently started baking and selling bread as well. Please tell us about that.
Alon: Okay so you see right here (pointing to small bulletin board)… well right now it's about half full but I got more breads about to go in. this is something that we're missing on the island. Like I said before, I wanted to open a bakery before I did a Mediterranean, and my wife persuaded me otherwise if you remember that. But as we went into business I saw that we do need a good fresh bread here; my passion always is making bread and it couldn't hurt the revenue because Mediterranean food is great food but not everybody understands that, but everybody understands what bread is.
Le Minh: if you want to walk us through the bread and tell us about them?
Alon: Sure. We have different kinds of bread. Usually, the menu will be right here; whatever is available (card) will be flipped the right side up, and whatever is finished for the day we flip it to the other side. Here we got some sourdough, some Israeli Hala what we call, some seeded white loaves over there, and over here we got some whole wheat; the olives have finished for the day, and we're about to put more baguettes into the oven.
Martin: (as he’s eating) This is the best restaurant!
Orion: How has business been? Are you considering delivery?
Alon: Winter was slow here. Nobody was eating out. But that was fine. Let’s see where this will go but so far, we’re fine.
Orion: When did you start Uber Eats?
Alon: In the winter, but it is better when people come and eat here.
Esther: What are your favorite things about Roosevelt Island?
Alon: My favorite things… the community (and Adib). Those are the first two. I think we have a wonderful place here and I think it's the best-kept secret of New York! It's quiet; just quiet enough. The community is great, very supportive. People are very nice here. It's safe here. I just love it. It's beautiful here, we get to see the city, we get to see everything. We're in our own little Island. Very accessible.
Orion: Do you consider the environment in your business?
Alon: Yes I do. We’re starting with the forks that you’re using; they are made from corn. You see those plates, it is all from fiber that is compostable. They make them from corn and sugar. This (plates) is made from sugarcane. The straws that we have are made from corn. I tried as much as possible not to have plastic but we do but plastic is the enemy.
Orion: So the people that make these, they make them out of compost?
Alon: After they extract the sugar from the sugarcane, they are left with a lot of fiber. They make them with this fiber. They make these plates from the fiber.
Esther: What else are you planning to do in your restaurant?
Alon: At this point, after adding the bakery, I don’t have further plans to expand the restaurant. Maybe a couple of menu items in the future, but nothing major.
Martin: Does your family help you in your business?
Alon: My family does help me when they’re needed and when they’re available. Most of the time the employees that work for us. Occasionally, on vacations and when they are available they help as well.
Aivan: What is a typical day for you?
Alon: A typical day for me is a day where -about 7:30 in the morning- I start setting up the restaurant for the lunch service. At which point after lunch service we prepare different foods and breads for the evening service. When that evening service ends at 8:00 PM, when we close, we prepare for the next day; we order vegetables, and other missing ingredients that we need for the next day’s preparation. Lastly, at 9:00 PM – 9:15PM, I go home, have dinner, relax, and start over.
Le Minh: Where do you see your business in the future?
Alon: So the mission for this business is basically where it is right now! We like what we’re doing. We like the scale of it. We like the location. We like the community. We want to make it a special place for Roosevelt Island and Roosevelt Islanders. No interest right now to expand to other places. We want to keep it the way it is.
Martin: Recently we met Cameron Koffman, Director of Constituent Services for City Council Member Julie Menin, and he told us that they are working on a “One Stop Shop” idea to help small businesses. When we met him, he told us that she is also the Chair of Small Businesses. Have you been in touch with their office?
Alon: I’ll tell you the truth, no. I haven’t heard anything. This is the first time I’m hearing about this. I’m not too much involved in politics. I like to do my own thing.
Martin: If you’re doing it by yourself, do you get any assistance from anybody outside of your restaurant?
Alon: From the bank (shrugs). Usually, politicians help when we cannot afford it or we cannot get access to something, and they send us help. Fortunately for me, no. I was able to do things by myself. I built this restaurant by myself. Whatever you see here, I built by myself. In six months I built this step by step and (pointing to a customer) I have a witness here. (Turns around and points to his wife) And here’s another witness.
Here's video of the young Roosevelt Island reporters interviewing Alon.
Mediterranean Eatery is located at 548 Main Street and open Tuesday thru Sunday 11:30 AM to 8:00 PM. Stop by, say hello to Alon and try some of the tasty Mediterranean food and fresh baked breads.
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