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ZOOBA: NOW WITH TABLE SERVICE, A FULL MENU AND RAMY YOUSSEF INVESTMENT

Zooba is an Egyptian restaurant in downtown Manhattan, located where Soho meets Little Italy. It opened in 2019 with a fast casual format, serving contemporary takes on Egyptian street food, like ta’amaya (Egyptian falafel, made with chickpeas and fava beans), koshari, hawawshi, among other delights, in a mind-boggling space, in the best way, designed by architect AE SuperLab and art director, designer Jessica Walsh.

But, as we all know, the only constant is change, especially in New York City. This past weekend Zooba changed its format to table service and expanded its menu to include some of the more elaborate Egyptian dishes like molokheyya, a green stew of mallow leaves and chicken, Alexandrian-style branzino, braised lamb shank with kabab hala sauce and “mama” ganoush. Thankfully, Zooba’s design remains in place, including the neon ceiling lights. I peeked in over the weekend and the restaurant was buzzing, but I did not catch a glimpse of Zooba’s new investor Ramy Youssef, the actor, writer and comedian of Egyptian heritage.

I love Egyptian food and it doesn’t get the fanfare it deserves—koshari, too carbohydrate-y? I see no problem there, it’s delicious! I have been a fan of Zooba’s food and design since it opened and walk by frequently, even in the dark days of the pandemic (which is why there is a gas mask photo). Founder Chris Khalifa grew up in Cairo, Egypt, where Zooba first launched. There are 13 Zooba locations in the MENA region, most are in Egypt, including inside the new Grand Egyptian Museum. Zooba’s Head Chef Moustafa Elrefaey is currently cooking at Zooba’s NYC location for a limited time.

WONDER: GLOBAL MENU, $700M RAISED, BUT SOUL-CHALLENGED

Now we get to the portion of this Mercantile Mayhem newsletter that’s the exact opposite of Zooba. I heard about a new food chain that opened its most recent location in the East Village called Wonder. After taking a look at Zooba and stopping by The Goods Mart’s sidewalk party to taste some Salsa Vega and other goodies the other day, I continued northward to the East Village to see what this new food concept, Wonder, was all about.

Wonder is described as a food hall, but without any of the physical stalls, it’s basically a ghost kitchen for take-out and delivery. The food options are from 20+ restaurants or take-out concepts like Streetbird and Bobby Flay Steaks, created by celebrity chefs Marcus Samuelsson and Bobby Flay, respectively, among other restaurants like the award-winning Chai Pani, based in Asheville, NC.

Customers order food on touch screens or via the app, it’s prepared in tiny kitchens without gas stoves, bagged and ready for delivery or pick up in approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Sandwiches cost from $10 to $15, mains are $15 to $27. While Wonder is geared for its meals to be eaten outside the premises, there are several tables with chairs, but no trays, every order is packaged and bagged. I found it all to be very clean, corporate and lacking any type of soul.

This is not a food review, Robert Sietsema of Eater has opinions, most quite critical, I’m more concerned with the economic impact on neighborhoods. Wonder now has 11 locations up and running in New York and New Jersey (six of them in New York City) with 25 slated to open throughout 2024 and 55 to open next year, all in the greater NYC metropolitan area. Once again, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for independently owned businesses to compete with such massive concentrations of power and money.

Marc Lore, Wonder’s founder and CEO, formerly the president of Walmart’s e-commerce, recently raised $700 million for Wonder, as he stated on Squawk Box. Okay, props to Lore for conceptualizing, raising capital and birthing a new food concept, but is it filling a gap in the market? New York City has cuisine from all over the globe, I get that this is a new one-stop model, but do people want or need this?

Wonder’s East Village location was just as aggressively personality-less as I thought it would be. I wasn’t sure I’d find humans—customers or workers—on the premises. One worker, very polite I must say, placed bagged orders on a shelving unit for pick up, a man waited for his order looking at his phone and several customers were sitting at tables. Two had struck up a conversation about documentaries and the film industry, both were Tribeca Film Festival goers.

They were not who I was expected to be Wonder customers, they were not “on my bingo card” as the kids say. One man is working on an anti-corporate documentary about Starbucks workers unionizing. The other donned a conical straw hat and a loose, layered outfit in elegant creams; his work had new age-y leanings woven into it when I later looked at his website. They both were delighted with Wonder’s food and ambiance, despite being surrounded by a slew of independent eateries in the East Village. One of my absolute favorites is about five minutes away, Jiang’s Kitchen that serves sublime Uyghur food.

I eventually chatted with the hatted gentleman who used “the royal we” when talking about himself (unless he had an invisible friend). Visiting from Los Angeles, he told me he was attracted to Wonder by its name (which I had previously thought was a lousy, easy-to-forget name, but I guess that’s why I’m not a business owner) and when I mentioned the massive corporate aspect to Wonder, he excused himself and said, “We have to go now,” with a smile.

On the positive side, Wonder is exposing smaller regional restaurants like Chai Pani (I interviewed the founder, Meherwan Irani, who has an extraordinary story) to a larger audience, but what good is the exposure if the food is lackluster due to preparation? Could Wonder ruin the reputations of the lesser known restaurants?

It remains to be seen how Wonder’s 90 locations slated for greater New York City will impact independent eateries. Maybe New Yorkers will be so turned off by Wonder—the food, the format—there will be a surge of eating at actual food halls. Please let me know if you have gone to Wonder in person, or ordered through the app, and what you thought of the experience and food.

A NOTE ON THE FEARLESS FUND RULING

You’ve probably heard about conservative groups pushing back on various DEI initiatives, from college admissions, to funding for Black female business owners. On June 3, an appeals court ruled that the Fearless Fund could not issue its Strivers Grant to Black women founders as it “… violates the Civil Rights Act of 1866.” Yes, you read that right, 1866.

The Fearless Fund, based in Atlanta, GA, is a VC firm that invests in early stage startups founded by Black women. Their separate Fearless Strivers Grant was/is (?) a competition open to Black women business owners; four winners get $20,000 each, plus mentorship. But last year the Fearless Fund was sued by the American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) claiming the competition was discriminatory towards non-Black women.

DEI initiatives were created to level the playing field in schools, employment, cultural programing, funding for businesses, among other areas. While DEI in the context of school admissions or corporate/institutional HR issues can get complicated, the impact on funding for businesses is can be quantified through data. Despite grand proclamations at the hight of the BLM movement, there has not been significant change in funding patterns, here are a few alarming stats:

This sets a dangerous precedent as there are scores of grants and VC firms that specialize in funding entrepreneurs who have historically been underfunded: women, Black, AAIP, immigrants, etc, will these grants or investments be challenged next?

Aurora James is the founder of the lifestyle brand Brother Vellies and the Fifteen Percent Pledge, which advocates for retail stores to have 15% of their products for sale made by Black-owned brands, proportionate to the 15% Black US population. Follow James’s Instagram as she explains the recent Fearless Fund ruling and calls to action.

STOREFRONT RETAIL ALERT: MADNESS OR MARVELOUSNESS?

While some people in Sasha Chou’s life thought opening a retail shop for her soap and bath business Mumu Bath was a little nuts, Chou didn’t agree. Mumu Bath already has a robust e-commerce and market pop up business, but for two years she envisioned a physical store. She finally opened a light, airy retail shop this past Sunday in Dumbo, Brooklyn.

Originally from Taiwan, Chou sources some of her ingredients from her family farm, like the tea leaves used in her Mt Ali Taiwanese Tea Soap, used both as a tea in the soap and mixes in leaves for exfoliating. The bars are not exactly cheap, $14 on average, but all ingredients are top quality. The aromas inside Mumu Bath are fresh and subtle, especially the eucalyptus bar and not overpowering.

Most people are quite particular about aromas, which makes a physical retail store logical when selling soaps and other fragrant items, despite rent and labor costs. I learned while researching my New York Times retail story a while back, stores can be a place for creating community and meeting like minds.

NYC PARKS WRESTLE DOWN A GIRL SELLING FRUIT AS NYPD WATCHES

On June 2, a Sunday afternoon, a child selling fruit in Battery Park with her family was wrestled to the ground by NYC Parks staff and NYPD looked on as they tried to cuff her for vending fruit without a license. Whatever one’s feelings are about immigration, refugees, asylum seekers or street vending, there is absolutely no excuse for grown men to treat a girl, clearly not a threat, in such a violent manner. The musician Marc Rebillet happened to witness this brawl, filmed it while also stepping in to help (as did other people) and then posted it on Twitter. Please watch the video. This is how the NYC Parks and NYPD choose to do their jobs?Street Vendor Project has set up a GoFundMe for the family.

🎶 🎵 🎶 NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NOMIN-A-TIONS! 🎶 🎵 🎶

Nominate two New York City entities in the near future: a Chinatown small business and urban design projects..

Infinite thanks to Accompany Capital! They are not only a Mercantile Mayhem newsletter sponsor, but have also been investing in New York City’s immigrant and refugee communities since 1997.

OPPORTUNITIES

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