Meet You At Peacock!

0:00I was like, well, this is, let's see who's coming. Right. So it was back then Secretary Clinton and Mr. President Clinton, and it was her birthday. They came to you for their birthday?

0:12Shelley:Oh my God. She goes, and I said again, what a great honor to have you. And she goes, well, my mom hasn't stopped talking about you guys.

0:26Shelley:Welcome to Lunch with Shelly, the podcast featuring conversations with colleagues, friends, family, business leaders. At lunch, here's Shelly. Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Lunch with Shelly with today's special guest, Shahab Barbar. Shahab is the co-owner, along with his brother Mazar, of the very famous and beloved Peacock Cafe nestled in the heart of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Anyone who has eaten here or even walked by the restaurant has seen Shahab's always smiling face since he is the front of the house for the restaurant, while his brother, the chef, oversees the great menu and delicious food that Peacock Cafe is well known for.

1:13Shelley:In fact, Peacock Cafe has been featured on all types of media, including TV, local and national newspapers, magazines, and of course, restaurant reviews. USA Today referred to Peacock Cafe as the local getaway where you just might spot Rob Lowe with Bo Derek. And famously, Jenna Bush held her engagement party here. Shahab and Brother Mazar came to the United States from Iran in 1978 and both attended San Francisco State University. They made their way to Washington, D.C. and opened Peacock Cafe in 1991. At first, Peacock was a deli with hand-tossed salads and sandwiches served only on paper plates, and it wasn't until after their first year that they even invested in real plates.

2:02Shelley:Fast forward several decades and Peacock is renowned for a wide variety of fantastic offerings, including my favorite tomato soup in the city and a very, very popular brunch, among many other wonderful things. We made a particular point of hosting the podcast today because today is the Persian New Year marked by Nehruz, which is a 13-day holiday during which the people of Iran celebrate the vernal equinox by exchanging gifts and feasting on symbolic foods. It is a 3 ,000-year-old holiday tradition, and I am completely excited to learn more about it and enjoy their festive menu. Shahab, it is such a pleasure to finally have you on the podcast.

2:49Shelley:So without further ado, Nuruz Mubarak. Thank you. Yes. Which I pray means happy Nuruz, right? Yes. And so welcome to the Lunch with Shelley podcast and let's have lunch. Wonderful. Great to have you with us. And you've done this several times here. I know. And you were gracious enough to host a podcast and I was always wondering, oof. What's it like? Well, I'm so happy to be able to be with you today and talk about our food and our rules and everything. Yes. Well, it is such a pleasure. Well, we want to talk about you. I want to learn more about you. So tell me, what was it like growing up in Iran?

3:32Shelley:And what was the impetus for coming over? And was it you and your brother or your whole family? What's the story? Sure. Well, I was 13. This was back in 1978. November of 1978, I came. My parents brought me here, and the reason for it was the political situation and the revolution that was basically heating up. And by early 79, when the revolution basically took hold and Shah left and Khomeini came. So we were there until toward the end of Shots Resume, unfortunately. And I'm the youngest of six in our family. I was going to ask about your siblings. So I was the last one that mom and dad brought out.

4:25Maziar, my brother, chef, part owner of the restaurant, he came a couple months before me. Oh, wow. So my older brothers and sisters, they were already here. My dad had this plan of them, you know, kids go to college in U.S. and then come back home. So we had a familiarity with U.S. and D.C. area. And at that time, what happened was a lot of the families who could leave the country, they went to places that were the most familiar with. Right. So for us was U.S. and D.C. area. Oh, so you came to DC? Yeah, so first for a period, and then we moved to San Fran. Yes.

5:12Shelley:Well, first of all, what did your father do in Iran? So he was a pediatrician. Oh, wow. He was a very popular, well-known pediatrician and beloved in our city. I'm sure. And he had a little bit of a stint with politics back home. Hence, the fact that he had to leave as the revolution was, you know, going into the next stage, complete stage. So we came to D.C. area, and I was basically 8th grade in middle school, and Maziar was in high school. My God, where did you go? I was in North Stafford High. Actually, you know, we settled. That's another long story, but we settled. We settled in the D.C.

6:12area, and my older sister was living in this area. She had settled down and married with kids. Already? Yeah, so normally that's, again, you gravitate and you come. And frankly, at that time, nobody thought we would be living here long term. We thought, you know, it's not going to last and everybody will go back in a couple years. Right. But obviously here we are 47 years later. So this was very interesting in a way that we settled down. We planted our roots. My dad loved his past on. Mom and dad have passed on. But they loved U.S. and what it offered. And we grew up in a household that were very appreciative of the opportunity that we were given.

7:10and they work very hard. My dad, unfortunately, could not practice medicine here. And my mom became a wonderful beautician and hairdresser. And so we grew up in a family that we worked. We loved each other. All of us took care of each other. And I always say from the six kids, we all love each other, but I think Mazia and I are the only ones that can work in a business together. It is a, I mean, especially restaurant business. There is a lot going on. So it's that feel of work ethic, appreciation of life, appreciation of where we are in the moment that I think built us and created our character.

8:04Oh, I'm sure. to run a restaurant for 34, going on 35 years. So kind of fast forward, we finished our high school period in the D.C. area. And then for different reasons, we had my older brother there and then my sister who actually, she's an architect. She designed a restaurant. Oh, you're kidding. So is everybody here still? So everybody's here. I have a brother that's in Seattle.

8:33Shelley:Okay. But everybody else is, yeah, within Northern Virginia, D.C. area. Yeah, it is. It is. And my nieces and nephews all have kids now. Oh, wow. Just a beautiful, you know, family. Again, given life's circumstances, you know, we don't get together a lot. But, you know, we try to see each other as often as we can. Everybody's busy. And so, but it's really nice to have everybody close by. So, we moved to San Francisco. And that was sort of a prelude, actually, to our restaurant career. Because of the food scene. Yes. Maziar was a lot more interested, and he took the jobs that we had to work during college years to pay the bills.

9:17So he took his jobs much more seriously than I did. He worked with some great restaurateurs and great chefs, again, having classes, and then at nights mainly working at restaurants. From a very small French bistro on Knob Hill. It was right by Fairmont Hotel. It used to be called Knob Hill Cafe. Fantastic small restaurant which reminded us of when we first opened Peacock in 91. Our place had five tables and as you mentioned, very humble beginning. So that place had 10 small tables, two servers, chef, sous chef. And, you know, so he learned a lot in that place. He, you know, from the food and service and so forth, amongst other places, great places that he worked in San Francisco.

10:13One of the most notable ones was at Star's Restaurant with Jeremiah Towers. Oh, wow. Jeremiah Tower, very well known, being called father of the California cuisine, as Alice Water was the mother of California cuisine. Jeremiah Tower, which has an amazing history by himself. And Anthony Bourdain, before he had passed on, he had done a documentary on Jeremiah Tower that I highly recommend. And it was kind of unknown. This was in an era of in the 80s that there was no, I mean, very little food network or, you know, celebrity chefs weren't as big and as notable and easily accessible as they are today.

11:02So he really made his mark on California cuisine and American, high-end American culinary cuisine. So Stars was a magnificent restaurant. the place to be in San Francisco to dine, and it was right by the opera house downtown. So fantastic stuff. So Maziar, actually, it was hard to get a job there. He got in, and he got his foot through the door, and he became very close with Mark Franz. Back then was Jeremiah's executive chef. So although Maziar was in the front of the house, but he learned a lot. Yes. Oh, that's so funny. Which again, it's an important point because as a restaurateur and as a chef, working at the front of the house, the point of service, accommodation, flexibility.

11:56Which you are incredible. Well, that's where it all comes. You understand the both back of the house and front of the house. The restaurants that are successful, it's like a hand in a glove. They just go very well together. And it really, again, creates a better experience for the guests and the staff are not as agitated or both back and front. So all of these experiences kind of led us to here. However, we came back after graduation. We came back. Mom and dad were getting older. and, you know, my sisters were taking care of them and we wanted to help out and we kind of, you know, again, my mom was a wonderful, wonderful mother and wife and human being where, again, her whole goal was to bring the family back together.

12:51Right. So we came back. It was supposed to be a temporary move for both of us because we love San Francisco so much, but here we are.

13:01Shelley:Right. Well, you know what? D.C. really dragged you in, and there's a nice feeling of community here. And it's all relative, but it's somewhat not easy living, but you can have cars and homes and family. It definitely has gone through its transition from the 80s and 90s to now. It's definitely much hipper and nicer. Right, that's true. It is much hipper. Cosmopolitan. Yeah, it wasn't that way earlier. So we opened up and we, again, actually, we were looking, Maziar and I, I was in banking. Well, that's what I was going to say. So it's funny that Maziar was the front of the house because you're such a perfect front of the house.

13:43Shelley:And your relationship is the business guy and he's the creative guy now, right? So he, again, the love and passion for the food and restaurant business. and again, opening the place. And he, yeah, basically, you're lucky that he's the chef. Was it your passion too, though? I mean, I appreciate that you were following your brother, but did you have any other passion or was your passion business? No, it really, it was business, but definitely restaurant, hospitality, always was it. I mean, you're such a natural. Well, thank you. You are. Thank you. So it is really, again, testament to, first of all, us being able to work well together.

14:31Secondly, you know, through ebbs and flows of life and business and cycles of economic cycles and so forth. You know, you stick to your gun. We always wanted to have, you know, again, opening a business. Restaurant was not a first choice for us. Actually, for a while, we looked at other businesses because we knew how hard. restaurant. Yeah, right. But then one day we're like, you know what? We both know it. We both enjoy it. Well, and he's such a good chef. Well, again, it came, honestly, it just came together really well. Because when we first opened the little peacock, as I call mother peacock, we didn't have a hot kitchen.

15:12It was a deli. So we kind of broke our piggy bank and opened up the place. And as you mentioned, paper plates, paper cups, and to be able to open with what we had. You know, it was, but at the very beginning, it was about the food we served and how we served it. So it was a lot of lighter fare. It was the tossed salads. These are days before all these salad bars. That you came to the counter, you ordered your salad, Maziar or our staff was back there tossing it to order, which was unheard of in D.C. back then. We had a great coffee program. Again, we couldn't get it back then in Georgetown. There was a moratorium on beer wine licenses.

16:02So we had a great coffee. I was making the cappuccinos, and, you know, there were, again, this is 91, 92. I know, it was very unusual, yeah. Amazing. We used Ely coffee and the great Spurso machine that we knew from the San Francisco days. And Maziar was familiar with it. So all of these lend itself to creating a great product. And I think that's where, you know, we really didn't mean it to be that way, but all of a sudden as a healthy place.

16:36Shelley:Yeah, and such a popular brunch place. Did you ever sit out and do that? Well, because we didn't have a hot kitchen, so our menu was limited to a lot of daytime stuff. Maziar was cooking on two burners, and we had a conviction of it, that he drove to Pennsylvania to pick it up the first day we opened. Oh, that's great. So with two burners and cooking the pasta and the vegetables and all that, so our menu, which still there is a lot of items, the tomato bisque, the vegetarian chili. These were all started. The tomato bisque is unbelievable. I appreciate it. And the sandwiches. And the sandwiches, yes.

17:19Shelley:And I love how you named them after celebrities. Celebrities, exactly. Some made the cut, some haven't. We had more, but, you know. But those are all, again, points of being able to appreciate what we do and how we do it and how we serve people. from the beginning again whether paper plates or later on you know full service restaurant it was about building relationships and you have incredible retention i mean yeah i've been coming year year after year the same people here year after year it's so marvelous well thank you you know um my i have two daughters and my daughters when they were doing one of them was doing the SA for college, she mentioned not just building a community for the guests, but also a community of staff.

18:13And that really, again, is a big part of our, I think that's how we were raised. And we are fortunate to have some really amazing people who are still with us and the people that were here before and definitely come and go. some great staff who really care about service. I always say I can teach you how to carry a tray or make a martini,

18:38Shelley:but you can't teach kindness. You've got to have that to start with. Or consideration. Everybody that I interview in this business says the same thing. You can't teach that. Just the hospitality. It's in the world of it, being hospitable. And you're constantly smiling. It's such a pleasure. Well, having people like you guys, of course, it's easy. Why? So we kicked after we decided, you know, to open it, what we could afford to open a small cafe. We kicked around so many different names. Yeah. The building we were at, it used to be a carriage house. We're like, you know, a long time ago. So we're So all these different names came about.

19:31And I have an older brother who was getting married at the time. And my sister, who's a designer, she's retired now, but she's done some fabulous work. She drew up the invitation with two peacocks. And of course, peacock being, you know, in relation to Iran, Shah's throne was a form of peacock. Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah, the peacock throne. So my parents were always excited to say that we named it Peacock because of the Shastron, which again, he holds dear to us. And we're very, but it just kind of blended really nice together. So those two peacocks that my sister drew on the invitation, and it's just the name kind of worked.

20:16I love it. And then it just rolled off the tongue. Yeah. And we said, okay, it is what it is.

20:22Shelley:And it is so memorable. and all you have to say is let's meet a peacock. It's really great. I like that. I use that. Let's meet a peacock. No, it's true. It's true. I mean, that's what I say. How about peacock at 1230? Done, done. Thank you. What was Iran like when you were growing up? Let me tell you, I am obsessed with this new show. I think it's new on Apple called Tehran. Okay, yes. I am obsessed with it. Have you seen it? Me too, yes. Okay, are you done? I've seen the first season. I haven't had a chance to. I don't know if there's a second. I guess I'm watching the first season right now.

20:59I think they're on third. Oh, my God.

21:02Shelley:I mean, like, now that's what I'm going to do tonight. But anyway, it's very dear because people in the show, you know, regardless of politics, talk about how much they loved Iran pre this new regime. Do you have fond memories of it? I imagine you do. I mean, your father was a pediatrician, which is such a marvelous thing to be. He was a very patriotic man. Everybody still seems very patriotic. Exactly. So that's what Iranian means. We have, although by, I mean, the way it has worked out that we're a Muslim country, But before that, and even through that time, we're very secular in a way. Like where we grew up, we have a very large Iranian Jewish community.

21:57Baha 'i, Christians, different ethnicities, the Kurds where we live in the northwestern part. They were, again, different. And all considered themselves Iranian first. Right, right. And then, so in that regard, I was very fortunate to live through that period because it was such a period of expansion and modernization of Iran.

22:24Shelley:Everybody always calls everything the Paris of this or that. But Tehran was the Paris of the Middle East? Or how would you describe it? I mean, it was, again, I guess that would, yes, resonate, because it was so, it was modern, it was our people culture, and just a Persian culture going back to thousands of years, as we talked about, Noru's and so forth. But the people that we've had that made their mark on the world, you know, in science, math, design, architecture, engineering. I mean, these are some magnificent accomplishments 2 ,000 years ago, 1 ,500 years ago. The poetry, all of these, math, science, you know.

23:21And I think this is sort of actually the result of what's happening now, that the whole generations has realized what we have missed out, what we were, who we were, and what we could be and where we are now. So that has fueled the movement. Whatever is happening, yes, the movement. And rightly so.

23:52Shelley:You're listening to Lunch with Shelly. By the way, I'm glad that we're talking about this and we'll go back to Persia. I have sort of dumb questions, but we can edit them out. But this soup is amazing. Thank you. So what is this soup called? So it's called ash reshte. Ash reshte. Ash means soup. Okay. Basically, we have different types of ash. And then reshte is the long noodle that's in there. So it's very customary that we have it for the new year, which the new year represents the harmony with earth, as the earth is the rebirth of earth, the awakening of earth, going from cold, dark winter into a beautiful spring.

24:39I mean, I love it. Thank you. It's very healthy. And really, a lot of the Persian food, in a way that the combinations are, it's the medicine, I always say. You know, it's not just so much flavors match, but what the ingredients are in there. It's, again, so good for the body. And these are all recipes of hundreds of years.

25:05Shelley:I'm going to take this home with me. Take a picture of your empty plate, or empty bowl. What do you think of this soup? Delicious. I appreciate it. You say it louder. Thank you. Absolutely delicious. Isn't it? But that's, again, part of... The beauty of your culture. The beauty of the culture, the food, the hospitality, and even the Noru's is a very family-oriented, very warm gathering of friends and families that it represents you sit around and the sweets, the food that you have. And ironically, you know, Peacock, we never wanted to, I mean, initially it wasn't meant, and we are not a Persian restaurant, but through these trials and tribulations and events that happened.

25:57One in particular was Maziar was invited and had cooked at the James Beard House. I saw, yeah. 2010, I believe it was, with the DC All-Star team. And on his biography, they saw that he was from Iran. So the next year, they contacted him from the James Beard House. They say, oh, for Noru's, do you want to be the chef, guest chef? And of course, it's such a big honor. Of course. And up to that point, we hadn't really cooked Persian food at Pico. At all? At all. Oh, my gosh. Because we're a contemporary American cuisine and not to mix the concepts and so forth. And back then when my mom was alive or my sisters were, you know, you couldn't match their cooking.

26:49Right, right, right. However, just on a personal note, my mom had just passed, and Maziar saw it as a sign that he got to do this.