A touch of the Greek Islands is coming
to the nation's capital with the opening opening of
Lemani. It's a new restaurant in Washington D CS Wharf.
And here to give us a special early taste
is chef Lonie Zoller and regional operations manager,
Kakos.
Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having
us.
So tell us a little bit about lemon.
What does that mean? And tell us about your restaurant.
It means seaport basically where the fishermen
come and unload their hull of daily fish
and we're serving it. Typically we grill it. Our specialty is grilled fish. A
lot of seafood octopus is a very popular item.
Well, we all know like the, the Greek food and the Mediterranean diet.
All very healthy, very good for you. But what makes your kitchen different than
other Greek restaurants?
Um We don't really use any butter.
Obviously, the Mediterranean diet is very healthy.
Um So olive oil, right? Is that
olive
oil,
we substitute olive oil for pretty much everything.
Um
Greece has a lot of blue zones.
So that kind of gives you an indication that it is a very healthy diet and lifestyle.
Oh, yeah.
There's a whole fat around it, right. The Mediterranean diet.
But the food is also really, really great. What are some of your specialties?
Um, a lot of, uh, seafood grilled fish.
Uh, like I said, the octopus, uh, tomato salad.
It's a classic Greek salad, tomatoes, olives, onions, cucumbers, peppers,
feta cheese.
Um, basically just raw ingredients. Very good, raw ingredients, lightly,
um,
beautiful. The restaurant is the view everything.
Um, all right, chef, what you got for us today.
So we're gonna do Span
Pita
today. Uh
It starts with phyla
dough
and then we have a mix of spinach, feta white pepper
and then all the herbs here. Dill scallions, parsley.
Uh
So I've got these premade. So it's two layers of phyllo
and we use a little bit of clarified butter in this preparation.
It's one of the only things we use butter for.
Um
So if you wanna get started, we can go now.
All right, let's do it.
So what I'm gonna do here,
what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna put these here. OK.
All right.
And then
what we like to do is spread it out just a little bit.
OK?
Right
now, gently
roll one time.
I'm already ripping it.
No, it's OK.
It's gonna look beautiful in the end. All right.
Now we're gonna fold it one time like this
and just lightly crease it
on both sides.
All right. Now, if you want to pass the
right here
and then just lightly brush
up here
in
this section right here.
Now,
is this a traditional recipe or is there
something anything what makes this special is this
is, this is pretty tradition. OK. This is a traditional
OK.
What's the secret to making it? Just
powerful punch? So delicious.
Uh
There's not really like a secret. It's just starting with good ingredient is
secret, starting with good ingredients and, and, and that's it.
And then we're just gonna roll. Well, that's just it.
Good ingredients makes everything
good ingredients, make everything with love. Yeah.
So
uh
so we put it in here. We bake these for about seven minutes at 375. All
right.
So those will go in
and then these are, are prepared if you wanna come and help us
garnish
right here and we
uh
we garnish with a dill dill sprig
and then this is a traditional
Tzi
that's yogurt olive oil,
um cucumbers
and uh that's it. And you just do it like that just like
a
simple look and so delicious.
So you said cucumbers
and Greek yogurt and Greek yogurt and dill dill.
I mean I can smell it and it smells so good.
Yeah, thank you for showing us that. I see you have some other dishes here.
I know this is the famous
dessert. This is
our
baklava.
So layers of phyllo. We use walnuts and pistachio and honey. This is thick. Yeah,
we also, we also have another dish that's sort of a,
a reimagined baklava. That's very interesting. You guys should come in and try it.
Uh This is our Greek, this is the Greek salad, the more traditional one.
So tomatoes cucumbers, um,
bell pepper, obviously, feta cheese and olives.
Ok.
Casey, you guys aren't open yet. When do you open? What's the plan?
We had a soft opening a couple weeks ago.
Grand opening is November 15th and we're already taking reservations.
We're on open table.
So you're more than welcome to book with us through
here and you guys are down in the war in the
war. Yeah. How does it feel to be down there? It's such a very exciting place.
Beautiful space, beautiful location. We're excited to be down in Washington DC
and even more than providing us with great food.
You all are partnering with some local organizations,
Miriam's Kitchen American Experience Foundation.
We're very happy to be working with them. And
how are you helping them out?
Uh We're hosting them uh for a dinner later on in December to support them.
That's amazing. Yeah, and they do a lot for the community,
support them
all.
We love to hear when the restaurants are giving back
that
we have some silverware over there. You can just use your hands.
You can
us.
Congratulations. We're very excited that you all are coming to town and
all right, you ready?
We gotta get the sauce. Hey, cheers. Kristen. Cheers.
Cheers. Thank you. So much again. Check out
Limani at the wharf opening, November 15th. Keep up with him on Instagram at
Lemani DC.