(Yogev Kremisi brings much needed dining menu to Ghent.)
By Marisa Marsey
“Are you Charlie?”
Yogev Kremisi gets that question a lot. The trim, swarthy 38-year-old chuckles as he clarifies he’s not. But he is the new proprietor and chef of Charlie’s, the venerable little house on the corner of Granby and 18th Streets, long a Ghent go-to for greasy-spoon aficionados.
He’s refashioned it into a bastion of zesty, vibrantly-colored Middle Eastern cuisine, swapping out the breakfast-lunch format for lunch-dinner and trading up the red Naugahyde, diner-esque décor for a handsome brown and black interior with wood tables and paneling and, in the back sunroom, greenery and garlands galore.
But the most dramatic change: Charlie’s is now a kosher restaurant.
Step inside and right by the front door, you’ll see framed certification that it’s under the kosher supervision of Vaad Hakashrus of Tidewater which has been assiduously overseeing kosher products and establishments in Southeastern Virginia for more than half a century.
That means Charlie’s adheres to a lengthy litany of intricate Jewish dietary laws covering what food may be consumed and how it’s handled. Cloven-hooved and cud-chewing are the only kind of land animals permissible, for example, and only birds that aren’t hunters or scavengers. They must have been slaughtered swiftly and humanely.
But you don’t have to know any of that – or be a Jew keeping kosher (translated as “fit” or “proper”) – to come here. All you need to know is that the food, from falafel and chicken wings to schnitzel and shawarma, is divine.
A native of the Israeli coastal city Nahariya, Yogev is a U.S. citizen who moved to Hampton Roads with his wife a decade ago to be nearer her father. His opened his first enterprise in 2017, an Oceanfront ice cream shop called Dream the La Cream, known for designer milkshakes.
He sold it last year because all along, “This was my dream,” he says, glancing around the 80-seat restaurant he opened six months ago. “It’s just like in Israel.”
He emphasizes that he doesn’t water down dishes to mimic American flavors. So lamb fat melts into the kababs and the tahini amba sauce, a sweet-sour mango-centric condiment popular in both Israel and Iraq, tastes authentic. It’s made on premises, like almost everything else here except the breads, sourced from New York.
Yogev sprinkles Hebrew lightly throughout the menu employing words like nishnushim (small bites/appetizers), pargiot (young chicken) and balaga’an (chaos or confusion), a playful name for a tray that features every one of his four desserts.
Dishes including chicken skewers, brisket “cigars” and tomato-rich eggs shakshouka, tingling with spices, come à la carte or as part of mesiba, meaning party, muti-course meals for sharing family-style. A group of four chooses two appetizers, four mains, four sides and one dessert while a six-top orders three apps, six mains, four sides and two desserts.
Yogev sends out a flurry of complimentary salads including baba ghanoush, sour cabbage, carrots, beets and olives (think Mediterranean banchan) and, to scoop them, warm pita speckled with sesame and herbs; he flashes a heartfelt smile as tables packed with three generations feast: “Again, same as in Israel.”
Those seated at one of the few tables up front can watch Israeli soccer or music videos on the big-screen TV or kibitz with Yogev as he skewers ribeye and grills vegetables behind the counter. He’s ever-present as is Avi Berman, the mashgiah, ensuring that Jewish dietary laws are followed to the letter; inspecting every delivery, scrupulously scrubbing herbs and veggies (insects aren’t kosher, so none can wind up in a dish), tamper-proofing to-go boxes.
They’re working on obtaining an ABC license but for now, customers get a kick out of lemonana, a brain-freezing slushie of fresh mint and lemon as verdant as spring.
Technically, all Jews should keep kosher, but orthodox Jews are the most, er, religious about it. So for the estimated 100 orthodox families in the area, Charlie’s conversion is a godsend. A third of its clientele, though, couldn’t give a fig about what is and isn’t treif (forbidden), and their number is growing.
That’s due partly to Yogev’s preserving the name Charlie’s at the urging of friends and associates who shared its “institutional” legacy. A wall of memorabilia and faded articles honors that history, and corny signs conveyed like “Exercise? I thought you said extra fries.” (Yes, you can get them here, zhuzhued with za’atar, a dried spice blend). And you can order a Charlie burger; just don’t ask for cheese. Mixing meat and dairy is a no-no.
Some folks, ignoring the Middle-Eastern Cuisine appended to the name, amble in expecting blender-whipped omelets of yore or country fried steak with biscuits and sausage gravy (immortalized when Tom Hanks, in town filming “Captain Phillips,” ordered it). Once they experience the scrumptious fried cauliflower with Charlie’s sauce, the crackling perfection of the chicken schnitzel or the depth of hummus plates (and all in such abundance!), they keep coming back.
So you’ll find Jews and “Ghentiles,” Arabs, Turks, vegetarians, the Kosher-curious and more supping here. As Yogev says, “Food can be the peace in the world.”
1800 Granby Street, Norfolk. 757-904-0532. Open Sun.-Thurs. from noon to 9 p.m., Fri. from 11a.m. to 2 p.m. Closed Sat. and during Passover (April 12-20, this year). Private parties welcomed. Catering available. Sandwiches $12.95-19.95, entrees $19.95-32.95, combo platters (2/$55.95, 4/$109.95, 6/$165.95) charliesmiddleeastern.com
