Ted Xenohristos

I do not think you would you know when Dimitri was in the kitchen or not. I am not saying that to be rude, but Dimitri is a professional and is capable of training a chef while at the same time being hands on and keeping the consistency. We have become more consistent in the last few months, and if your interested you may email me at ted@cavamezze.com and I will have Dimitri and another chef prepare you 3 dishes and you may try to pick out which was made by whom. I am pretty sure that Jose Andres is not cooking at jaleo, zaytinya, minibar, oyamel..etc all by himself every night. Does he get a pass for being famous? Anyways, let me know if you want to take me up on that offer, of course the dishes will be on me. Thank you Ted

A few things in reply to this email. As the owner, I would like to touch on some subjects written here. "The owners need to expand or rethink their policies." WHEN WE FIRST HAD AN IDEA TO OPEN A PLACE, NO ONE WOULD GIVE US A SHOT...NOT A SHOPPING CENTER, NOT A SINGLE LANDLORD. WE TOOK THE SPACE THAT WE COULD GET AND NOW IT HAS BECOME SO POPULAR PEOPLE ARE DEMANDING WE EXPAND. WE ARE OPENING A 2ND LOCATION THAT IS 3 TIMES THE SIZE IN THE NEXT 2 MONTHS. IF ANYONE IS LOOKING TO DONATE TO THE EXPAND CAVA FUND PLEASE LET ME KNOW, BECAUSE LAST TIME I CHECKED THE ECONOMY WAS IN SHAMBLES AND IT IS NOT SO EASY TO JUST EXPAND. ALSO, OUR WAIT TIMES ARE NOT THAT LONG BETWEEN SUNDAY AND THURSDAY, NOR ARE THEY THAT LONG ANYTIME NOT BETWEEN 7 AND 8PM. EVERYONE LIKES TO GO OUT FRIDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT AT 7PM TO 8PM AND I UNDERSTAND THAT, BUT YOU HAVE TO IMAGINE THE PRESSURE IT PUTS ON A 60 SEAT RESTAURANT IF 200 PEOPLE ARE AT THE DOOR. "Then the place was so loud and dark that it was hard to read menu of talk to waitress." PEOPLE ENJOY THE DARKNESS AND LOUDNESS...MANY TIMES THE ATMOSPHERE IS A MAJOR DRAW. IF IT WAS TOO DARK AND YOU HAD MENTIONED IT TO THE SERVER, WE HAVE SMALL LIGHTS THAT WE SUPPLY FOR CUSTOMERS OR LIKE MANY PEOPLE DO USE THE CANDLES AT THE TABLE WHICH ARE PLASTIC FLICKER LIGHTS AND NOT REAL WAX. "Food at this point was thrown at us faster then once could imagine how it is really cooked to order" THIS ONE GETS ME THE MOST. IF YOU ARE GOING TO QUESTION THE INTEGRITY OF MY RESTAURANT, PLEASE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. I INVITE YOU ANY DAY YOU WANT TO WATCH MY KITCHEN STAFF PREPARE THE FRESHEST FOODS AND ONLY COOK TO ORDER. WE ARE A MEZZE RESTAURANT, WHICH IS LIKE TAPAS. IF YOU ORDER 10 PLATES YOU WILL GET 10 PLATES. THE POINT OF THE PAPER MENU IS SO THAT YOU CAN ORDER 1 OR 2 THINGS, AND ADD ON AS YOU GO ALL THE WHILE SHARING THE SMALL PLATES. "Came back at 7:45 and did not get seated for another 45 minutes." ALL I CAN SAY TO THIS IS THAT THERE IS ALWAYS 2 SIDES TO A STORY. BUT I AM NOT HERE TO ARGUE WHETHER I AM RIGHT OR WRONG, BECAUSE THE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT. DID YOU ASK FOR A MANAGER THAT NIGHT TO EXPLAIN THE SITUATION? I AM SURE WE WOULD HAVE DONE EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO FIGURE OUT WHAT HAD HAPPENED IF IT WAS SOMETHING WE WERE AT FAULT ABOUT. "My predicition is that Cava is soon to be a victim of its sucess. What started out as pleasant, tastly and popular is now crazy and obnoxious." THIS ONE STRIKES ME OUT AS SOMEONE WHO HAS AN AXE TO GRIND. A VICITM OF OUR SUCCESS? WHAT WOULD YOU RATHER HAVE AN EMPTY RESTAURANT WHERE I MAKE PEOPLE WAIT OUTSIDE IN THE COLD? ALSO CRAZY AND OBNOXIOUS IS A PERSONAL OPINION, SOME PEOPLE WOULD CALL IT CHARMING AND ALIVE. WE TRY OUR HARDEST TO PLEASE EVERYONE AND MAKE SURE THAT THEIR EXPERIENCE IS SOMETHING THAT WILL BRING THEM BACK. MANY TIMES OUT OF 300 PEOPLE SERVED ONE OR 2 MAY HAVE A PROBLEM, AND WE TRY OUR BEST TO MAKE SURE WE FIX IT THAT NIGHT. WE CANNOT FIX PROBLEMS IF WE ARE UNAWARE OF THEM. OUR FOOD IS FRESH DAILY AND COOKED TO ORDER FOR EVERY SINGLE ITEM. CAVA IS WHAT IT IS...IT IS A SMALL RESTAURANT WITH GREAT FOOD AND GREAT ATMOSPHERE. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A CHAIN WITH CERTAIN EXPECTATIONS THAN THIS IS NOT THE SPOT FOR YOU. MY PREDICTION IS THAT CAVA WILL BE SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE WE ALWAYS MAKE SURE TO TAKE CARE OF OUR CUSTOMERS. I HAVE 1000 EMAILS TO BACK THAT UP. FINALLY, I UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MAY HAVE HAD A FRUSTRATING NIGHT, BUT I HAVE BEEN TO SO MANY PLACES, INCLUDING TOP 5 PLACES, BEST BARGAINS, TOM SIETSEMA'S FAVORITES AND HAVE HAD BAD EXPERIENCES AT SOME AND I HAVE ALWAYS GONE BACK AND MANY TIMES I HAD A GREAT 2ND EXPERIENCE.

I didnt think you were berating me, I just wanted to explain how we were held back a little by the county and the fact that we were newly opened. We have now added a tempranillo from rioja, a Howell Mt. cab, and now have over 30% of our list offered by the glass. We have added over 10 new bottles and hope people will try some of the Greek varietals. We are a work in progress, hopefully by our 1 year anniversary we will have perfected it all. Any wine additions recommended here, I will surely take into consideration for adding to out list. Ted

Dont be nervous my friend, there are 3 of us owners, and we would not over expand, but we feel between 3 of us, we can make sure that the standards are up held. Ted

As far as the wine goes, your right...the montgomery county mafia has held me back from doing what i wanted to do when we opened. When we open in DC, you will see why we billed ourselves as a wine bar. The Greek wines are really good, besides Italy, Greece has the most indigenous varieties in the world. I offer more Greek wine, because i am Greek and have been many times and just know more about them. I had a rioja and a cote du rhone and neither sold, so I replaced them with Greek wines that I think are amazing. Some recommendations are the malagouzia, and roditis, both of which are white. The reds, we have a Mountrihas Petite syrah that is great, and a bottle called Monopatis which is $60 and can be had for half price on Tuesday. This winery was named one of Europe's top 50. I like to think that we are a wine bar in the sense that for our size and the are we serve in we offer over 50 wines and not the normal Luna di luna like you find at every other restaurant. Thanks for the nice reviews everyone. PS The Santorini Gavala is our most popular and I will be adding more wines from santorini. TThe vines are cultivated in low basket shaped crowns, close to the ground for protection from the strong winds. Coming off the sea, the nocturnal fog brings needed water to the vines during the hot summer nights. Its very interesting to see the vineyards in Santorini...

Was the crazy feta the orange colored version or the white colored. We tried a different recipe and I am curious to see which one you liked.

Thanks to everyone posting about CAVA, the success so far has been tremendous and thanks to feedback like this we have been able to change the menu for the better and will continue to do so. As for reservations, the restaurant is usually full by 7pm, so I always recommend people come before that time or after 8. Its a small place and hard to accommodate reservations, but hopefully we will be able to expand very soon. There are some great dishes that I would recommend, and they are the OPA shrimp, the mini sandwiches, the grilled shrimp, the stewed lamb, our lamb chops and crab cakes are great also. The spinach pie and eggplant dip are good and so is the Village salad. For dessert I always recommend loukoumades, which are a Greek take on doughnuts. The grilled octopus also has changed, we now use a baby octopus that is more tender. As for the octopus in Greece, if people really knew what they were talking about they would know that it is frozen and imported from China. They than hang them outside their restaurants to make them look fresh for the tourists. Also the "sun dried tomato" dip is actually a harissa made from red peppers and tomatoes. Lastly, the pricing of the fish is what it is. If we pay alot for it we have to pass that on. Most of the times the grilled fish is 19.99-29.99. Thanks again to all and keep checking us out, a new menu will be released in the next 2 weeks. www.cavamezze.com PS Thanks to those who recommended Ray's steaks, I had one of the best steaks ever there.

Where is this SOBE location, anyone have an address? Efharisto ladi kai lemoni! We do not have any of the greens, and I will explain to you why. It is different when your mother or grandmother are out picking their own fresh greens and getting the best available. Many times when we order through a distributor they bring us crappy greens, many times with dirt in them and we do not like to serve anything like that. We do get Meditteranean fish, mostly imported from Greece. Most of our food is Greek inspired. We do souvlaki very traditional, as close to Greece as you can get, we leave some good fat on it, which gives it great flavor. Our whole menu is mezze, which is about 45 small plates, and some are not Greek, but many are. If anyone stops in, please introduce yourself, I would love to buy you a dessert we call Loukoumades, which to me is the most traditional Greek dessert, simialar to a French binet.

Hello everyone, My name is Ted and I am the owner of CAVA, which is a Greek mezze restaurant. The reason I am on this board is that it seems many of you know alot about food, restauarants and locations. Has anyone been to my place? If so, let me know what you think. My site is cavamezze.com I am not trying to use this board as advertising, I already have some hour to 2 hour waits, so I am basically here just to be part of this board and see what feeback I can get. Ted