The Making of Zahav

Few industries appreciate youthful ambition and energy as much as the restaurant business.

Georges Perrier was 24 when he landed in Philadelphia and barely 27 when he opened Le Bec-Fin. Neil Stein was 24 when he rolled out his first restaurant, Mimi Says, in Wyncote.

And so we have Max Shapiro, 24, who will run Zahav. Shapiro is an L.A. transplant who, in his senior year at Penn, started working as a food runner at Marigold Kitchen for Zahav owners Michael Solomonov and Steven Cook. Shapiro got an earlier taste of the business as a Penn junior, when instead of studying abroad in the conventional sense he worked in a kitchen in Florence, Italy.

When it came time to graduate, Shapiro headed to New York and got a waiter's job at Craft, which grew into a captain's job. When part of the Craft crew opened Insieme, Shapiro went there as a floor manager.

Last year, Cook and Solomonov were in the early stages of planning Zahav and thought of Shapiro, whose wine palate is well-educated. Now, he's back and he's become a popular figure with the city's crop of wine salespeople.

Soon as the orange liquor license placard hits a restaurant window, the wine salespeople begin swarming. Shapiro has met with at least a half-dozen of them. They come bearing bottles and price lists. Greg Cohen of Southern Wines & Spirits dropped by recently with samples from companies including Lulu B, Joseph Drouhin, and Boutari (a Greek vineyard).

Shapiro wants to stock 10 to 20 in Zahav, and more in the Quarter.

(This entry was delayed.)