Inside the Culinary Mind of Tzvi Maller - Mojo's Creator and Gastronomic Innovator

Welcome to The Kosher Terroir.

I'm Simon Jacob, your host for this episode from Jerusalem. Today's episode of The Kosher Terroir focuses on a relatively new restaurant in Jerusalem called Mojo and its owner, Tzvi Mahler. Tzvi, a serial restaurant entrepreneur, has created multiple leading-edge theme establishments in the US and Israel. Names such as Sushi Mitsuyan, Nobo Wine and Grill, The Ridge, Crave, and now Mojo. Though the focus of his restaurants have always been super creative and tasty food, they have also become regular hangouts for the wine crowd, hosting top winemakers as they introduce and showcase new varietals and vintages. Join in our conversation reviewing Zvi's journey through his restaurant's past, new developments of his present venue, and exciting future expansion plans. If you're in the midst of a commute, just enjoy. If you're home, grab a glass of your favorite kosher wine, sit back, and relax.

Welcome to the Kosher Terroir. It's really a pleasure speaking to you, Zvi.

Pleasure.

My pleasure.

So my honor. Let's do that.

No, no, it's my honor. The thing that's cool is that most of the subjects that I talk about are wine. And I think over the years we've probably spent more time drinking wine than, than even eating food. But, and so I think the first time I met you was back in back in sushi matsuyan days. Yes, but, um, but the question I have really is where did it start? Where did the food dream— where did the, you know, where did the dream start?

Wow, okay, that's a good question. So you know what, or nightmare start— nightmare, I wonder. No, it's a passion. You really want to know this? Okay, so I said I was about 11 or 12 years old, 11, 10, 11, somewhere in there. And I remember my mom went back to work. This was the early '80s. And I'm home alone. I was known as a latchkey kid. Do you remember that term?

Absolutely.

Okay, so absolutely. So I had me, the TV, and I had to eat. So I remember cooking up food. I think I'm making like macaroni and cheese, but like doing it a little bit better. I used to make these nachos, which I've done before now for my kids. Yeah, you make nachos and cheese and macaroni and cheese on top. I'm gonna send you a picture after this. You'll love it. You'd have to taste it. A little bit of hot sauce. Wow. So I think I— whatever, I started cooking on my own and, and I think that's what happened, and you just fell in love. And it's food, it's something that you gotta have every day. You know, you buy a pair of shoes, you're good for 6 months. Yeah, food, you need it pretty much every day.

So did you get— did you learn to make a lot of different things, or just you lived on nachos for a few years?

No, no. So obviously we— you expand and you go out. I think being on my own in college, also cooking for myself, also expanded more. I remember being in San Diego State University. That expanded more of my culinary world and going out to eat and growing up on those In-N-Out Burgers. That was a real influence on Crave.

Really?

Yeah, all that food that I grew up with in LA, big influences that I got from that. Different flavors. I grew up on a lot of Mexican food, lots of stuff like that. God, I'm remembering all the food that I ate. Luckily we can elevate it all now, hopefully, mirtz hashem.

Ruch Hashem.

Yeah, that's Hashem. Then I got into business when I moved to Israel. I started working in restaurants here and I worked with a lot of different chefs. And in fact, I had tried to open up the Crave concept a little bit tweaked from what it was as I got out of it. But in 1999, I was looking at a place in the Russian compound. Doing burritos and like, these were things that Crave started with.

Yeah.

And it was a real— I just couldn't pull it off then in '99 and I ended up going back and opened up Sushi Mitsuyan. I'd moved. I was told Teaneck was an up-and-coming place, a real culinary place. It was close enough to my in-laws at the time, but not too close. And I felt it was going to be a place to start something. Mordechai Weiss, I think, introduced me to Daniel Berlin. So I met Mordechai Weiss, the Chabad house there. They were tight. And Daniel wanted me to have a— he wanted me to like resell his sushi. And I was pretty adamant.

I was—

no, no, no. No, I'm gonna have to wash, so yeah, sorry.

You want to wash? Go wash, go wash, go wash, go wash, go wash. You're cool, you're cool. Yeah, no, I know. You got two pieces so that I can taste too? Well, or are they two different ones? No, no, it's two different ones.

Yes. Okay, this one is with mayo and he'll share it with you.

No worries.

One is with the cashew cheese.

Okay.

Don't worry, tell me which one you want. No, no, I will, I will, but I will— no, taste this one first. Now taste this one.

I didn't know they were different.

Now taste this one. That's the one she wants to go with. Yeah, I think, I think we're in the middle of a tasting decision here for tonight's menu.

Ask her to make a couple more. We ask her to make a couple more. Simon's gonna have to taste. I kind of like, I think this one had more rounding to it.

Okay.

That's right there.

Okay.

There was a tomato on it? What was it? I don't know.

That was the one. I thought that was what we already have in existence. And the other one was, uh, Proposal. I didn't realize they were both proposals.

I don't know. Okay. I thought there was more acid on the—

on that one, on the— on the right-hand one.

I thought there was maybe it was some sort of tomato of some sort on top, and I felt the acid kind of brought out—

okay—

more. This kind of didn't have that.

Cool.

Acid kind of like acid. You need acid.

Yeah, yeah, no. So by the way, what we're drinking is the, uh, is the Elvi, um, the Encina, which is a new, which is a, a low, um, lower priced white that's just delicious. And it actually cuts through, uh, a lot of the food and a lot of the acid which is, you know, it's perfect for this food.

Yeah, I mean, I'm loving this wine.

I know, me too.

I'm loving the wine.

Me too. Yeah, Moses did a great job and David did a great job on this wine. Yeah. Okay, so you started in sushi.

So Berlin wanted to sell sushi. I said, give me my four walls. I'm gonna, let me open up a restaurant. I didn't think that was gonna, I didn't feel it was gonna be, it would work as well as it could. So I was adamant about small place. I've never been doing numbers. I had to do $400 a day in business to break even. Me, one sushi guy, and one guy in the back was the plan. That was the plan. Cool. And, um, I, I, I— it turned out to be a home run. Yeah, yeah.

By the time I got there, um, you were at least 2 sushi guys, um, and I think then you grew it to 3 sushi guys. 3 sushi guys, 3 guys in the back, and it was constant, it was nonstop. I think the reason we met was because I had been waiting and then somebody came in screaming about something and I just said, let him go, like, do it, whatever. And we were talking and it was just fun to be there.

You butchered the story, Simon. I butchered it? That is how it happened.

Okay.

I was telling everybody, I didn't realize New Year's for the Jewish people was going to be such a big deal. Yeah, I'd been living in Israel. I thought from Jews didn't celebrate so much New Year's, didn't think it was such a big deal. And I didn't realize that they were going to be like crazy, crazy about it, right? We were telling people 3-hour waits. It's, it's December 31st, 2000. Yep, 3-hour waits. People come in, you came in, and I said, I looked at you, you said your name, I said, we're doing your order next. And he said, no problem.

Yeah.

10 minutes later, this other guy walks in and he says, says his name. I said, we're going to do yours after, after yours. Okay. He loses his sanity. He had to get to a party. You looked at me and you just said, do his order.

I'm fine.

You waited 45 minutes.

I don't remember that.

You waited for me.

We had a lot of fun during that 45 minutes.

I had a bottle of single malt. I think it was Glen Ross.

Okay.

I believe it was the Glen Ross, that the bottle, you know.

Yep, yep, yep. With a round—

I brought it up and I said, I need to meet you. And that's how— that's what happened.

So, so yeah, so that's how we met. Um, I remember the Glen Ross, but, uh, That, that was, yeah. And then we went from Sushi Mitsuyan, which had a lot— that was really a sushi and scotch place. But, um, but what was interesting about it was that the scotch was not licensed. It was supplied by the customers. Yeah, people just came and Port Scotch. And it was, it was a party every night.

I mean, that's how I met Joey Faulkner.

Yeah.

Well, he was opening up, uh, I think it was, it was in '98, either the, the, either the Napa or the Alexander Valley.

No, the Napa. Was it Napa? Yeah, it was a, I think it was a '98 Napa or a '90. It could even have been a '96 Napa.

Okay. And I, I didn't know him.

Yeah.

I saw he asked for the corkscrew, a couple of glasses. And I went up to him and I said, Meister, 10% goes to the house.

Yes.

That's how I met Joey. So yeah, God bless alcohol.

Yeah. Well, no.

And good l'chaim.

I forgot about the wine too. Yeah, we did. We went through a lot of wine at even Sushi Mitsuyan because it did well with that. After Sushi Mitsuyan?

We opened up 2004. I had this dream about making pasta. The Pasta Factory. Place. And it was, I remember being in, um, in, uh, Tel Aviv in a restaurant. I was inspired by it. This is going back many years before I, before Sushi Misaki. And they, it was a small pasta, like kind of like what Pasta Basta is doing here in the Shuk. Yeah. Or wherever they are located. Like a quick pasta. I thought it, I thought there was a place for that. Can we get a little more wine when you get a chance, somebody?

Yes, yes, yes, yes.

So, and I was at that time doing business with my neighbor, Saul Kruschenbaum.

Yes.

Or Zalman, as he's called. Who had Levanas and other stuff that he was working on. And we opened in 2004. And there was a struggle there. It wasn't a home run from the get-go. We did higher end, we did a lot of other stuff. And what I found was that dairy was, it's hard. You have to really do a lot of business when it comes to dairy.

The margins are not, the margins can be there, but the prices is definitely not there.

As Rav Zalman taught me, you have someone sit in your seat for 4 hours, great, your food costs are at 20-25%, which is great. But if you only can make $15 on a chair, you know, it doesn't make business sense. It was simple mathematics. We did that till 2009, I think. At that point we changed over to me. And in between that, I opened up another sushi place up in Muncie.

Right. That was in 2007. It wasn't The Ridge, it was Sushi Mitsuha.

That was an interesting thing too, because Sushi Mitsuha in Teaneck was such a success. And when we went up to Muncie, I found that we ran it for 6 months as a part of restaurant, the same as Sushi Midtown in Teaneck. And what I found was that people got to a point where they were like, it's very good, the fish, but we want some flesh. So I learned that you have to, you have to, wherever area you're in, you have to cater to what people want, to the customer base. Yes. And certain people want this or that, that, and I don't know, like maybe the people— I find that also in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv. I find Jerusalem people aren't so interested in fish, and I enjoy fish. I still eat a lot of sushi.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, and that I make myself, you know, thank God. But like, I find that fish in Jerusalem doesn't go as well as fish in— and I hear fish moving in Tel Aviv all the time, which is interesting. Different customers want different things. Like, I feel it, like, you sometimes people are— they walk by and they want to eat and they want to feel pain afterwards.

Unless they're hurting afterwards.

We have a protest going on here because somebody's blocking the road He's letting people out.

He didn't want to hit them.

I think that's reasonable.

I think that's reasonable.

I think that's pretty reasonable. This is the land of patience.

Rosh Hashanah is coming.

Yeah, I know.

So I do feel there's a difference in clientele. You know, some people want to feel pain after they eat. Anyway, in 2009, uh, we changed it over to Nova Wine and Grill. By the way, once we changed, uh, in Tina, Muncie, once we changed over to, uh, since at Inflation Menu we changed it to The Ridge. Yeah, no, no, we didn't change it to The Ridge till 2014.

Okay. Wow, I can't believe your memory. That's awesome.

Yeah.

Okay.

So 2009, Fleish, or '10, somewhere in there. And I was also trying to edge my way back to Eretz Israel. I had been living there. When I left Eretz Israel in '99, I had a plan of 5 years. 5 years I was gonna go. 5-year plan. Went and did, uh, 5 years, so turned into 11 years.

Yeah.

So 2, I had been planning, and a good friend of mine at the time, James Oppenheim, was, uh, traveling a lot, and he was passing by me, and he was there a lot for business, and he was really helpful in helping me try to figure out how to manage getting back to Israel, still maintaining this business, and simultaneously opening a new project here. And I remember he was like, you can't answer your phone past 8 o'clock, you're sleeping because you're in Israel. I'm like, what do you mean I can't answer my phone? I mean, he really wanted— he was trying to make it that like, you're in Israel right now, How are you going to manage this? And it was definitely an interesting, interesting exercise. Yes, interesting exercise. Finally, in 2011, I think it was Tisha B'Av. I like to travel on Tisha B'Av.

I have a few times.

Yeah, I think Tisha B'Av, me and my, at the time, 6 kids And we all traveled back here to, uh, Eretz Yisrael. And it was funny, I thought traveling back and forth would be easy. Oh, you go to the lounge, you go to get a flight, you get to sleep on the flight, you go do your work, no one's bothering you. I found it actually, after the years of doing it for many years, 1K. What was I, 1K 4 years in a row or something? The first year I missed it by a few. One year I wanted to make sure I got 1K. Yeah, I had to fly in. I flew into New York and then I was like, I'm gonna go visit my parents for a night. I went out to dinner with my parents in LA, so I flew to LA so you could get the miles, met them at 5 o'clock. I slept over and I was on a flight at 6 in the morning back to New York. Just to get my 1K status. Um, thank God I haven't flown in a long time.

I so know that feeling.

But in 2011, right before, uh, I got up and left, and then I was traveling back and forth, I, I brought in, um, Josh Masson, one of the most talented chefs I've ever worked with. In my entire life, hands down. Dedicated. The guy would travel to Eretz Israel. Sometimes he would come here and visit. Half his suitcase, he'd get 70 pounds, I don't know, whatever he had, 2 suitcases, whatever it was, 100 pounds at the time. He, he, 50 pounds were cookbooks. The guy was relentless on being the best. And, and, and I think, uh, he is one of the most talented chefs I've ever worked with. Caring. Okay, you're gonna go watch?

Yeah, no, go ahead, go. Let's talk, let's talk about that first, and then I'm gonna watch.

So 2011, he started, I want to say, July 4th weekend. I remember it was July 4th weekend. Something like that. And I remember that first week, it was rough. He says to me, it was like we were slammed busy or something, and he just looks at me, he goes, "I'm just not getting it done." I was like, "You got this, no problem." Complete faith in the guy.

The guy is talented, talented, super talented, and super super picky. Yes, about stuff.

I mean, like, Baldor, gotta get the vegetables. I don't know, I'm sure he had a better— I'm sure he found a better place now.

I remember my wife ordering a double order of riblets, and he said, I can't do that. And I said, what's the problem? And he And he was so serious and said, I can't do it. I don't know how I'd plate that. And I looked at him like, two plates or one on top of the other? You know, like, I'm eating it because it's delicious. I'm not eating it because it's like, you know, plated properly. And he meticulous about everything. Really, really special person. That's the person who made it work.

100%, hands down. Nobo was Josh Masson, right? Uh, he, he did a— you had to see him cut chives. Chives.

Yep.

Chives on a Friday.

Yep.

Leave me alone, I have my knife, I'm gonna cut chives. And watching him do it with the— and using paper towel to clean that, like, I'm telling you, the How meticulous it was.

It was like insanity.

Incredible, incredible culinary genius. He's hands down incredible, incredible chef. And, uh, we ran that till COVID. Ups and downs here and there, but overall incredible, incredible experience. I learned a tremendous amount of— I learned a tremendous amount from him. I learned a lot from a lot of other chefs. There were a lot of chefs that went through, you know, I've worked with a lot of chefs. There was Barry, there was Dave, I mean, there was Chase, there was— I can't even remember all of them.

Yeah, but I remember you used to sit in the back of the counter in Sushi Mitsuyan making sushi while the guys were watching you to make sure that, you know, you were doing a reasonable job, you're willing to try anything. So that was one of the cool things.

Yes, yes.

I'm gonna wash, I'm gonna wash because we're gonna try something. I'm washing.

What's your verdict, Simon? Are they both the same or are they different?

It's supposed to be different.

Oh, this one has, um, cashew. Yeah, something. This has truffle mayo, I think. I would like to ask her.

I, I, I ask her because I think that they—

which one do you like better?

Truffle mayo.

Is that the one I like too?

Mhm, I think so.

Adin, did you try it? I'm a big fan of people trying. I'm a big fan of people trying something.

I know, I know.

I learned from Josh. Josh said to me once, he said, if people oversalted, they get a raise. If they undersalted, they're fired. At least if they oversalted, they're trying. We're in the restaurant business.

That's cool. Yeah, we're in the restaurant. I always oversalt. I'm very bad. I always oversalt.

Yeah, no question, he was, uh, hands down incredible chef. Still is incredible. So 2011, I moved here, traveled back and forth, uh, worked with Josh and, and Rob Zalman. Uh, Rob Zalman in 2014 moved on to some other stuff, and it was me and Josh left it at, uh, at Nobo at that time. Um, I was still going back and forth. Uh, and then 2016, I had been, I'd been working on this, this Crave project for, for a long time now. I've been trying since 2009, '08, whatever, when I started talking to you about James. And I'd met, uh, Meir Shomare. I don't know if you know from, uh, from Shiloh Winery. And he'd mentioned that Todd Ahrens was moving to Eretz Israel. And he had been at the winery, at Herzog Winery, Sierra del Sol. And he was moving to Eretz Israel. And I remember meeting him in Tel Aviv at, there was a, was there a beer bazaar there maybe? Possible, or there was some beer place I met him at. We talked and then we started working on this project. And I brought another person in. At the time, there was— we brought another person in, I think, right?

At that time, James.

James was there, obviously.

We were working on Yoni.

Yep. And, uh, we thought we needed a lawyer. We didn't like someone that could help us with real estate or Israeli stuff.

That was at the time.

And I had a vision of doing this like dream team hospitality, like trying to really make something big here, a big splash. And I felt that if I had enough ammunition, we could make it happen. Um, and Todd, another phenomenal chef. I can only say praises for Todd of what he— his knowledge is, and I'm sure it is still Um, in fact, I heard he's working on a new project up north.

I only wish him the best. Yeah, honestly, he's a doll. He, um, his wife used to be the teacher of a bunch of my kids.

Really?

Yeah, Maura Ahrens.

So yeah, actually, he used to— I didn't even know this, I don't remember it, but he said he used to go to Sushi Mitsuhan once a week in the, in the back of the day in Tinaj. So because he had a restaurant called Mosaic.

Yeah, he had a Mosaic, and I used to live in Mosaic when I wasn't in Sushi Matsuyan, and, uh, and I used to keep bottles. He had a, he had a lockable wine, um, just a wine rack with, you know, real old-style wine rack that you could lock. I don't know if he ever even locked it, but I used to keep wine, you know, uh, some wine bottles Speaking of wine, you have a bottle here right now.

Tom, is that right?

Yeah, Tom.

Tom?

Tom.

Yeah, I don't know, is it any good? It's sitting in the wine fridge.

You left it here. It's not good, it's great.

It's great, okay.

You know why? I think, if it's what I think it is, it's a bottle that I created with Yaakov Oria and Tomer Pinini and Ari. Pollock. I made, um, I made a specific wine with Tom called, um, Rabenu Tom.

Really?

So I think that's a bottle of Rabenu Tom.

You made this wine?

Yeah, yeah, this is one of the wines we, we blended together. And, um, yeah, and well, I'm storing it for you.

You needed a place to store it, I guess.

I know. Well, we can try it after the whites.

I'm enjoying this.

I know, I'm enjoying this too.

This is— it's nice, it's summer, this is great easy drinking wine.

We're sitting outside, if you didn't know from all the car horns and what have you, then the motorcycles going by, but we're sitting outside, um, on, you know, in one of the tables at Mojo, really, really enjoying it.

Shalom. We're sitting on—

yes, that's—

we are. And, and the street name, everybody should know what this name is, it's Jewish history. She brought a lot of peace to the Jewish people. About 10 years, I think she was queen. She was the queen of the Jewish people. And I heard, had there been more women like her, the Jewish people would have been in a better, much better place. So we opened up in 2016.

Yep.

We tried to model— we wanted to get rid of tipping. And I think it was a real, it was a real mistake in retrospect. Uh, Danny Meyer, one of my, one of my favorites in the restaurant business, obviously a Jew. I learned, I heard one of his podcasts not too long ago and he says, yeah, there was a saying my grandfather always said, man plans and God laughs. I was like, oh yes.

Yes, he's definitely— yes, he's hardcore Jewish. Yeah, right.

And, uh, but he did unbelievable stuff. Union Square Hospitality Group, the restaurants that he's done, obviously finishing with Shake Shack. And like, not finished, he still has more to do, I'm sure. But, uh, what he's done with that is like incredible, incredible stuff. Um, but I, I— he was doing this, let's get rid of tipping, one place. We tried it here in Israel, but the only people that were making money on it was the government, because on sales the government can tax you, uh, and charge mom. So 17% of the tips, kiilu tip, that we had put into the, into the menu price was disappearing, was just going to the And unlike other— unlike tips, there's no VAT on it. So people— the government was the only one making money. So we had lower prices and then— And put back tips. And put back— and let people tip. And then the waiters did much better. And the government didn't make as much money. They're probably mad at us, but I don't think so.

I don't think they even noticed.

I don't even think they knew.

I don't think they noticed it.

They didn't even know.

The other thing is that they also, for so long, you couldn't put a tip on a credit card here. You had to pay it in cash.

Why?

Why?

What? I don't even know why that was.

I haven't— there was some logical thing in their minds that they, they—

I, I don't Honestly, nobody knows.

I don't understand. And in the end, it— because what it incentivized people to do was to pay cash, which was something that was totally not trackable. So instead, putting tips on credit cards, them being tips, was at least trackable.

I wonder, I wonder if it was the merchants who was—

no, it wasn't. Well, the merchants were for it initially, But it was because nobody did it. Nobody would put it on a credit card.

You couldn't.

There was no way to do it.

I remember this time. Yeah.

So it was like, oh, you want a tip? No, you have to give it to us in cash. It was like, okay, it sounds a little under the table, but that was life here. But that's changed.

I think people tip more with a credit card.

Yeah, they definitely do. Because a lot of people are on expense accounts.

Nobody has—

A lot of people are on expense accounts. And nobody has change, small change. So what happens is they look in their wallet and they have a 200 shekel note, and they're not going to tip with 200 shekel note, right? Hi, how are you?

So, um, and I think what we, we did at Crave was pretty incredible. I really, uh, in 2018, I think it was, uh, Todd and James moved on and they went to open up a place called Bodega. Check it out, go check it out if you're in Tel Aviv. Somebody should go check it out. Yeah, it's, uh, great food, um, incredible food.

Todd's a genius.

Todd is a genius, no question about it. Another culinary genius that I had the opportunity and the schluss to be able to work with. Yeah, I can only say praises for him, uh, and, and I, I did feel that Bodega could have— for what Todd's ability is, I think it was a good thing he's doing. And I'm so happy to hear that he's doing something else up north right now. I heard he's working on something up in maybe, maybe in the Golan.

Cool. And there's a lot of people moving up to the Golan for some reason. I don't know. Effie Kots, who was the sommelier at, um, at the Rooftop in Mamila, right? I was just— he just got married. He was the bachelor, you know, he had a ponytail. He was like this bachelor guy who was great with wine, unbelievable guy with wine, knew everybody. And all of a sudden, Sophie, his wife, caught him and they just got married. And he called me to say, you know, I'm getting married. Will you come to the wedding? You know, like, I don't want to disturb you or anything. I said, are you crazy? That's the best news I've ever heard. You know, besides people making Aliyah, that you got married. Are you kidding? People should be toasting all over the world because of this. Right, right. It was, you know, it's very cool. So, uh, and he, he's up north. He just opened Recanati, um, did a—

is—

has a new tasting facility up north, and he's the one who's, um, you know, visitor, visitor center, and it's supposed to be gorgeous. I really want to go up there, but he's the one who's supposedly, you know, in charge of it now, so that should be good. So, uh, But like, like Todd, Todd was—

Todd, unbelievable. And I also have to say James, James Oppenheim, super creative, creative, creative. God, I can't tell you how many times I saw him. You're not seeing this, but like sitting, lying down, typing like the guy, he never slept. I don't know how he did it. Never slept. His mind was constantly in action, in action, ready to like, what's next? What's next? What's next? What can we do? What can we do? I'd say a marketing genius, hands down, hands down.

Ruch Hashem.

Hands down. I learned a lot from him in a lot of different areas. Not so much into cooking. He wasn't the best. He wasn't the best cook.

He wasn't a cook. Okay, that's okay.

But I know what he's doing in Tel Aviv right now is phenomenal. And, uh, and, uh, yeah.

So then, uh, so then, so that was Crave. And now, and now we moved on.

I had actually in 2019, um, It was Hanukkah time. I remember being at the restaurant and I'd been making lots of pizza and I was convinced that there was meat pizza to be done out there. And the first stuff I made, I remember I was at the restaurant and Edin was working that night, so I didn't want to leave her yet. And it was Hanukkah and I wanted to be around, but I prepped all this, uh, food. I The first pizza I did was I took— I was like, I bet we could sell— I bet we could do a Reuben pizza. A Reuben pizza. Take the same components. Hi, Tanya and Anava.

Hello.

Who's that?

I'm being interviewed right now.

Say hi.

Can we get— I'm sorry to bother you, but no one else was over here. Can we get some— the wine, the wine, the wine. What one? The Viva Encina. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, Anava. Um, 2019 Hanukkah, I make— I basically take the Reuben ingredients, which was our pastrami that we made and kimchi and cheese, and I chopped it up, the Reuben meat and the pastrami and made it like, like I did in a frypan. And I sent it home with like—

I think on this one, the one on this side was the— was the— you don't remember? No. Was the cashew. I think we both liked the other one better.

The truffle mayo.

The truffle mayo. Okay, I'm sorry. Yes, I think that's what we do. All right.

The, the, I, so I made the Reuben pizza. I sent all the ingredients home. I remember Lior, my friend Lior Georgi, you know Lior? Sure. So I said, he's the best. He picked it up because I was still at the restaurant and he, he brought it home. That, and I said, I think we could do like an animal style pizza where we do the same stuff with like, where we put even lettuce on top of the pizza, chiffonade on the lettuce. Like, I really believe, I really believed in this. And we went home, they made it. Tanya, were you at the house? Did you try the Reuben pizza back in 2019? Do you remember? And, uh, I think, I think it was, uh, it— I was like, that works on it. It's like another vehicle on how to get these flavors in there. Um, and, uh, so these— so then we, we built on it, like, we built on it. And I, it was something I've been, I've been thinking about since 2019, and I felt that there's, there's other culinary things that we can be doing, not just like that food. So that's kind of what Mojo's is.

Um, so you call it somewhere between a bistro and a pizzeria, something like that.

We don't even know. We're trying to figure it out still, right? You know what, all my restaurants, there's like an evolution of what, what's going to happen and how it, how it grows.

One of the things I like a lot about your restaurants is that there isn't— it isn't like the same thing every night. There's always something, at least weekly, that's new. You're trying a new taste, something new as to what's going on, and I love that. I mean, it's, it's exciting.

I mean, well, it's got to be exciting for us. Like, there's not always— we want to use something else also.

I know, it's good, it's good, it's great.

I have to say, the, the, the, our bacon jam pizza, I'd say, is a play on our, the veal salumi of what we did at Nobo. And, um, there's some tweaks in it. We did some things that are different. You know, Josh did it one way, um, we made it more like pizza, kind of And it is my favorite. That bacon jam pizza is my favorite pizza, hands down. That's that. Just every time I taste it, I'm just blown away. I'm just like, I can't get sick of it. It's just like, yes, that's the flavor I want to be eating.

I like your threesome.

Threesome is you want meat and that's what you want. How are you? Good to see you. And It's, it's, uh, can we get—

what did you say you liked a lot?

The, the bacon jam. That is my favorite.

Can I get a bacon jam pizza? All right, we want to try it.

Yes, that is my— it's hands down one of the— I, I think this, the, the complement of flavors in it. And, and afterwards, one of the things I really like is that I don't feel like I gotta pass out for a week after I eat this food.

Right.

Um, I don't know, it seems to be working.

But I— and I also, to be honest, getting back to the wine side of it, I really like this food with wine. I mean, I, you know, I don't think people understand that. I mean, you, you go through a lot of cocktails here, and I know a lot of people drink beer because pizza and beer, you know, like It's a natural. But these pizzas with the meat and with the fat and with the really exceptional flavors, some of these white wines just like are perfect.

Well, we washed, so maybe we should try some other food.

I know we should. We should try that as well.

Maybe you want to try the new one, the The BBJ, the blueberry bacon jam burger.

Done. I'll try that too.

I'll try that too. We might as well try the lamb riblets. We haven't had those in a while.

I haven't had them.

Well, okay.

I haven't had them here. I haven't had them here. I've been—

You never had the lamb? Okay.

Not here.

I did. I did. But then—

Evan. Okay, one second. We're placing an order.

Let's get a few more things. Let's get the— let's get a BBJ and let's get the— get an order of lamb riblets. When's the last time I had lamb riblets?

You want to take pictures? Go. Okay, do it. All yours.

We'll take pictures with your camera, Simon.

It's her camera.

Isn't that your camera?

I don't think so.

Oh, did she give you her camera, your camera back?

No, I don't know.

Or you changed maybe the lens? I don't know.

All I know is that she's such a great photographer. It's, it's not about cameras. It's about the photographer.

Okay, well, we learned a lot from photography from Dovid Zimmern. Let's give him some credit.

He's awesome.

Shalom Gedavod.

He doesn't know Yiddish. This is my, this is my, those are your people. These are my landsmen. These are my landsmen. And I already said mensch as well with my landsman in Mamila Mall. Um, yeah, this is delicious.

Oh wow. Isn't it surprising how great this wine is?

Great. I love this wine. It's like crazy. But I also, I honestly like the orange wines a lot with this type of food.

With these foods.

Yeah. Anything spicy, anybody, anything super flavorful, the orange wines just go— You remember sitting in, um, sitting in Crave with Yakovoria? Sure. And he brought, he said, okay, chicken wings, we need the chicken wings. And he brought out a bottle of his wine. And with the chicken wings, it just like exploded in your palate. It was like so delicious.

I'm working on some chicken wings here.

I'm telling you.

I'm working on some actually. Really? I gotta, I just haven't had time to do it. I don't do it yet, but I'm working on it.

I was never a chicken wings guy, but now I eat them on Friday night.

Yeah, I was— I'm not either, but I think there's a place for it. I think there is a place.

There is, definitely. And, um, and there's a wine for it because there's a definite wine for it, you know. Yes, Yakovourias. Yakovourias wines are crazed with it. Absolutely crazed with it.

Another guy, phenomenal winemaker. Definitely outside the box.

Actually, you know, speaking about wine, the first time I met you here was you guys were hosting the RCC in your house in, uh, right, right. That was the first time I ever saw you here. And, uh, and that was, that was crazy.

I think he got a couple of times. Yeah, yeah.

Singing.

And Penina was there.

Penina was there. Yigal was there singing happy— not happy birthday, something.

Avi had to show up.

Avi was there too. Avi Davidovitz was there. Yeah, everybody was there.

It was, uh, and I think— who did the food? Did we have bracha and, uh, I don't think so.

In your house, you didn't do the food? It could have been bracha.

Anuri. I think they could have been. I think they did it.

Okay, it could have been.

I think. I'm not sure.

How was it?

Excellent.

Excellent. Okay, this was your first time? No, he is.

Yes. How are you?

Hi.

Excellent. Good, good, good.

Very good.

He runs cover for me in case it's bad. He'll, he'll take it.

Yeah, in case you said something negative, he could just hide and I could take them.

What did you eat What'd we have? We had the lamb riblets. Okay, yeah, they were excellent. I don't know if I could order it every time. They're fatty. Lamb is fatty. Lamb is fatty. They were delicious. The KFC was great. Yeah, that's fun. The OG slider was great. Legit.

The Italian salad was excellent.

Yeah, nice.

And what else?

The cookies are in the back.

The cookies are in the back.

You had tequila? And you had gin and tonic. It's a very clean alcohol. Which one did you have? Bombay? What is it? Bombay, but now I should have Thinkers. Do you know Thinkers? The guy swears, Bennett, he says, the guy, Naftali, he says you will not wake up with a hangover. They do something I did the tour. We did the tour. Oh, you did it too? Okay, you did it with you. Okay, you know it. Excellent.

Anyway, thank you.

One of our new favorite places. God bless you. You know what, we hope we don't, you know, we enjoyed cooking for you. That was a line I learned from John.

The next thing is you need to open in the Modin area.

Okay, Simon, what do you think of the pizza?

It's terrible.

It's so good.

I don't know, that's, that's my favorite.

So tell me what this is. Um, we need some more white wine, but stay here for a minute while he's describing it.

I don't know, I think Tanya is going to describe what's on this pizza.

You can.

I don't know what's on it. What's on it?

You read it out. It's like a cauliflower cream puree, um, bacon jam. It's like jammy bacony onions. What else? Apple.

You got really gray out.

I really want to take a picture of the harbor, but did you see the air today? No problem. You guys still in the interview?

Yeah.

Oh cool.

Yeah, you're on the interview now.

You're on the interview.

You're in it. There's feta on it.

Who are you, by the way?

I am Tanya Mallard, Steve's daughter.

Cool.

Oh wow, dad's daughter.

Dad's daughter.

Yep, dad's daughter.

You know what we need? We need— yeah, we need more wine, please. Okay, so Aiden is here taking pictures, also another one of Zvi's daughters. Oh, and who, who is this? This is another one of Zvi's daughters.

Mm, is the what?

Looks— oh, I just took the picture as you moved it. Wow, look at that. This is crazed.

I think the hot peppers on the pizza blow it off the— yeah, I think it just kind of like You got this sweetness from— there's some chili honey on it, but it's not so spicy, the chili honey. And I think that, that it just like complements the apple, the smoked bacon, the arugula. Who doesn't want arugula on their pizza, you know?

Tofu, perfect.

And the wine's good. What more do you need?

This is a wine you can drink, you know, just on a hot summer day, but when you drink it with a pizza like this, it's just so much better. Everything just clicks.

Well, as I always said, wine is like food. Wine's food.

Totally.

I feel like I sit down sometimes, I'm just like, this is good food, but I feel like I need a glass of wine. Just like, even if I'm not like having wine then, it's just like there's something about wine and food.

Whoa, this is so soft. You gotta be kidding. These lamb riblets are crazed.

Yeah, let's try that. Let's try it. Fabulous.

Wow. Number one is they're melt in your mouth.

That's good. Yeah, that's yummy. That's yummy.

It is really perfect. So tell me about these sliders. What's going on with these sliders?

It's something that Alex Raymer had mentioned to me, who I'll be working with in Teaneck on the new project in Teaneck. He said something about blueberry bacon jam, so we wanted to try it. Um, I'm not sure I followed his recipe exactly because I don't remember seeing it. But we made up a plan and we're gonna try it. Let's see if it's any good. Mayer, actually my boy, made it, the blueberry bacon jam. And let's see how it— let's try it. Simon, you get to go first. You're the guinea pig.

Oi!

This is new. This is not on the menu, or it is on the menu?

It just got on the menu. Okay, yesterday. Let's see how it is. Let's try it. Let's take a bite of that.

Wow, what are the seeds on these buns again? I waited till your mouth was full before I asked The seeds are furikake, which is—

I'm going to leave out some of the ingredients that you— that could be, but it's basically black sesame seeds, white sesame seeds, nori, salt, some sugar mixed. There's other things you could add in there, like shrimp, shrimp flakes. We left it out. I just felt it was like inappropriate.

Um, you've been pushing the envelope a little far.

Yeah, I felt that the shrimp was going to be a no-go. Um, I'm tasting this. I feel it needs a little salt.

I agree.

There's hints of it being correct, but I think it needs a little bit of salt. I think it will just bring out more of all the flavors.

Right, I agree.

Simon, I almost want to make him try it again.

Tell him, try to come with salt.

Make him send out another one.

Yeah, with salt.

I did.

I think I want to try another one of the BBJ. The, the, the, the wagyu. I feel like it was missing some salt.

Salt?

Yep.

You want another one?

I think it wasn't salty enough. The meat.

Alex, can we get some more wine?

Yes.

Or you want to switch over to the red? No, let's have the white. The white's perfect with it.

That's good. That's just love.

It is. It's delicious. It's crazy. Absolutely delicious. Okay, so what's the goal with TNX Mojo version of Mojo?

I was going back and forth, like, the truth is I was ready to walk away from the whole project. I just felt I couldn't do it. And, uh, Joey Folkman was adamant about not doing that. Yeah, he wanted the place to be—

he's one of— yeah, he, myself, and a whole bunch of other people, right? So he, he's voicing a lot of people's opinions That's right.

So we're close to the end here. Missing some— they were harassing us about the bathroom right now. We're gonna work it out. We're gonna work it out. And hopefully we're gonna get open very, very soon. I was going back and forth on what we should open up, what name-wise. I've been, uh, a whole lot of different names here, and I felt that, uh, that what we were doing here in Mojo's, I thought could work there. So why reinvent the wheel? When we have something that I think is a viable option. And I believe that Ittieneck has a much bigger facility. There's 6,000 square feet there, a couple of kitchens. We can do a lot more stuff over there. So I think it'll be Mojo's, what we're doing here, on steroids.

I'm loving this.

Yeah, what's not to love about slow roasted lamb?

I know, slow roasted lamb riblets with, with what?

Uh, that sauce is a sauce based on something I did, um, honey garlic beef ribs back in 1996, a modified recipe from that when I worked at a place called Norman's Steakhouse here for Storm and Norman.

I remember that. Yeah, I was here.

You were there?

I was. Yeah, I was there. I didn't know you were there.

Yeah, yeah.

No, it's, um, no, wait.

Then they moved to Emek Refaim.

Yeah.

So before they were in Emek Refaim, Norman was involved.

Yeah.

I worked for him.

And then they— then he wasn't involved?

Then he got out. He got out. Wow. Yeah, I still see Norman every so often. I get Norman sightings.

Really?

Yeah.

Yeah, I guess I didn't know Norman, but I remember—

hard guy to miss. A hard guy to miss. Uh, he was all over the place, but he made these, uh, these, um, honey garlic beef ribs. So this is a sauce based on that, modified a lot, um, and And, but that was it. That was its inception. So there's been a lot of culinary influences throughout my life, I guess you would say, that have come to this place. And that's kind of what this is, the culmination of lots of all those flavors. And I hope I'm not done. I still want to, I'm still ready to do some other stuff too. I'm not done yet. I'm not done.

Okay.

After Mojo's, I still have some other plans. I'm not, I'm not ready to, you know, retire and, yeah, sit on the, sit on the sidelines.

You're a young guy, man. I know you don't feel that way, but you are.

Okay, try this. I'm gonna try it.

Oh, so it's much better.

Okay, better with the salt.

Much better.

I wonder why they missed the salt the first time.

It's really lovely.

The wine's good. Is it too cold?

It's a little cold for red, but it's good. It's not freezing.

We'll have to change.

It's fine, it's fine. We're doing great.

We'll change the tap on that. Let's see how that is.

Okay, so if you had your druthers, what do you want to happen in in Mojo West.

Huh. I wonder, there's a part of me that feels that this Eretz Israel is the future of the Jewish people. I'm being honest.

You don't have to be honest.

I'm just telling you.

I'm so on, I am so on with that statement, you have no idea.

I feel that like, I don't know how long, you know, if you look at history and everything that's happened for the Jewish people, how long will America last? How long will anywhere else last?

Look, American, I pray that America lasts forever. But you know what? I'm here and And I really believe Jewish people should be here.

Okay, I'm smelling this wine here, Simon. Okay, nice nose. What are the grapes in this?

I don't know if it even says, but it's a blend.

You think I can see that?

It's a blend— Cab, Merlot, and Syrah.

It's a blend. Do you know the percentage? Do you know it?

Percentages?

Oh, you don't know. I'm just wondering, is it Heavy cab?

Yeah, no, it's actually Cabernet Sauvignon 20%.

Wow, nothing.

Merlot 40% and Shiraz 40%.

That equals 100. Yeah, I come from— yeah, okay.

And 2% of something else, but 2%—

we'll take what we can get. That's like—

I'm about to try right now.

Get a glass.

Get a glass.

Let's try. He's got a good nose. Thank you.

Interesting.

When it gets to the end of it is, uh, wow, I didn't— wasn't expecting to end like that. I wasn't expecting that. I wonder, I'm wondering on this wine.

Go ahead.

What are you wondering? I didn't see that finishing, that finish that's happening, coming like that. Um, it's so cool that we live in Earth, so everybody that walks by, you can say, "Shana tova." Yeah, one second. I had— I ordered, um— wow, this is perfect temperature.

It's perfect temperature, and this is coming of age right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, this is coming out, coming together. Yeah, I think there is a place for dessert and wine. Not just sweet wine.

These foods are made for wines. Yeah, you know, some people can try to drink beer with it and some people can try to drink cocktails with it. These foods are made for wines.

I think the IPA also works with this.

Yeah, it does, because the IPA—

but I don't like— I don't even drink beer.

If there was no wine, I guess I would drink beer, but since there's wine Why would I drink beer?

Wine is food, that's why.

I thank you very much for this evening. I especially appreciated the, you know, the wine.

Time is it? 8:28.

Yeah, 8:30 we've got this beer.

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of The Kosher Teruah. A special thanks to Zvi Mahler and all the staff at Mojo Jerusalem for allowing me to interrupt their evening routine. If you're looking for lunch or dinner in Jerusalem, I strongly recommend Mojo's incredibly tasty food. They are located at Shom Siona Malka Street, just a couple of blocks from the City Hall. I hope you tune in again. To more episodes of The Kosher Terroir.