Z&Z Manoushe Bakery, owned and operated by the Dubbaneh family, opened in the exact location their grandfather opened a deli in 1982– the store that was home to Slice of Rockville for the last 11 years (1111 Nelson Street). Since September 2021, the restaurant has specialized in manoushe, a flatbread consisting of a simple yeasted dough which can have a variety of different toppings. The Dubbaneh family has told us that they look to “share the extreme generosity and hospitality that exists in Arab food culture with the local community.” and national food website, bon appetit, has noticed– including Z&Z in its “50 Best New Restaurants 2022” list.
Per the article: The Dubbaneh family started selling manoushe, a type of Palestinian flatbread, from a stall at Washington, DC’s Foggy Bottom farmers market back in 2016 and quickly gained a loyal following. Six years later, their products are available in 14 mid-Atlantic Whole Foods locations, and they finally have a permanent home base bakery located, fittingly, in the same Rockville, MD, strip mall restaurant space where their grandfather once ran a fried chicken shop. Here the manoushe emerge puffed and blistered from the saaj, a traditional convex metal griddle, and come with toppings that range from the expected to the inventive. If you have a hard time deciding, go ahead and overorder; you’ll be thankful for leftovers later. What to order: Classic ($8); Toum Raider ($11); Hot Halaby Honey ($15); Lahm Bi Ajeen ($15).
ABout Z&Z: When Fuzzy, the grandfather of the Dubbaneh family that owns and operates Z&Z, immigrated to the United States in 1979, he worked some odd jobs including sweeping Dunkin’ Donuts overnight. By 1982 he had saved up enough money to buy the upcoming Z&Z location. It started as a deli, then became Chicken Delight, and finally Chicken Tonight. Fuzzy ran the restaurant until 1992. His son, Dave, took over until 2006 before selling it to new ownership, where the business remained open until 2009. One of the current owners, Johnny Dubbaneh, told us his uncle Dave would always talk about getting back into that location. Now, they have.
Z&Z has been around for a few years now. They’ve always been hesitant to open a brick and mortar location, but were looking and decided to email the owner of Slice of Rockville to see if she was interested in selling. It just so happened that she had recently listed it and even previously went to contract prior to a deal falling through. Z&Z will be an expanded version of what they’ve been doing in farmer’s markets– offering food their grandparents ate and grew up on. Below you’ll see some photos of their grandfather in the restaurant back in the 80s and 90s and some of the dishes the restaurant offers.
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