Loop restaurant owner helping keep family tradition going, and sharing it with the world
CHICAGO (CBS) -- As we celebrate Arab American Heritage Month, we want to introduce you to a Chicago woman carrying treasured family traditions forward.
We caught up with Nicole Nassif, serving up customers at her Mediterranean restaurant in the Loop.
Imee's Mediterranean Kitchen, a Middle Eastern restaurant located on Wells near Randolph in the Loop, will be celebrating one year in business this summer.
The name Imee means mom in Arabic, and the restaurant's lemon logo also holds meaning.
"When putting together the logo, it was important to me to do something that was like an homage without being in your face. So the lemon has four leaves; one for me, one for my mom, and one for each of my grandmas," Nicole said.
Nicole, who's helped others set up restaurants professionally for years, knew it was time to make one her own, and she had some help along the way, including a grant she received from the Arab American Business & Professional Association, which in part helps female entrepreneurs succeed.
"The committee was just blown away by her story. We were all inspired, and Nicole's story isn't just for Arab Americans. It's truly the American dream," association president Rush Darwish said.
The recipes used at Imee's are all rooted in three generations of Lebanese women; her mother and two grandmothers. Their pictures surround the restaurant's walls.
In a move so special to Nicole, one of her grandmothers made sure the traditional recipes would live on.
"She hand-wrote me a recipe book, and for about a year I spent before we opened getting the measurements exactly, because, again, with ethnic cooking, it's kind of like just hit your arm until you stop, and then she'll grab your arm," she said.
From tabouli to kibbeh, Nicole prides herself on using authentic ingredients to provide a unique experience for customers to taste flavors of her Lebanese culture.
"It was important to me that the food that I ate, and the freshness, and everything that I knew was passed on to people," she said. "I say all the time, if you're Arab, food is a love language, because it's how we show our love. It's how we feed people. It's what you do as a woman."
Nicole said her restaurant's dishes are fresh and ready in five minutes or less after ordering, and they offer catering.
