Modern Persian restaurant with creative cocktails to open in midtown Sacramento
A second-generation area restaurateur will open his own modern Persian concept called Maydoon in midtown Sacramento next month, he told The Sacramento Bee on Tuesday.
Idean and Jen Farid expect to open their restaurant and bar around mid-February at 1501 16th St., previously home to Nishiki Sushi. Maydoon will take a modern, casual spin on Persian food, a cuisine scarcely seen around the grid, Idean said.
“I think (people) are familiar with Mediterranean cuisine, and Persian and Mediterranean food differ just a little bit with the spices,” he said. “Persian food has a lot more stews. But it’s not crazy adventurous where you’ll turn people away, and everything is super flavorful.”
Maydoon’s menu has yet to be finalized, but a tentative iteration includes soups, sandwiches, bowls, wraps and salads priced between $10 and $15 during lunch. A house salad will combine mixed greens with red onions, feta, pepperoncinis, olives and tomatoes.
Dinner will move at a slower pace and make use of Maydoon’s 10-person tables with family-style platters as well as a la carte dishes. Kebabs of koobedeh (spiced ground beef), joojeh (saffron-seasoned chicken thigh), lamb, mixed vegetables and beef barg (filet mignon) will all likely be on the menu. For dessert, customers might enjoy housemade bastani, or Persian-style ice cream infused with saffron, rose water and pistachios.
Iran’s countrywide ban on alcohol leaves little precedent of traditional cocktails, so Maydoon will add its own twists to commonly-found American mixed drinks, such as an Old Fashioned flavored with Persian tea. Other prospective cocktail flavors include pomegranate, rose water, saffron and pistachio, Idean said.
The Farids replaced Nishiki’s old sushi bar with a wall, closing off the kitchen, and swapped booths for wooden tables. White paint and gold fixtures now cover the walls, ceiling and bar, while marble flooring completes a bright, open feel.
Idean’s parents immigrated from Iran in the early 1980s, and his father Mohammed opened M. Shahrzad Fine Persian Cuisine in Rancho Cordova in 2004. Father and son have run M. Shahrzad together in recent years and will share Maydoon’s kitchen; Jen Farid consulted on the new restaurant’s design and marketing but will stay on with her job at an investment firm.
“(Idean) kind of brought me into the restaurant world,” Jen said. “I spent a lot of time in the kitchen watching him and his dad work together, so it’s been really fun seeing their relationship evolve through their time spent together in the back.”
Maydoon can seat up to 80 people inside, plus 20 more or so more on an outdoor patio. It’ll be open seven days a week with lunch service from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m., with happy hour from 3 to 5 p.m. It will have catering available upon request and delivery on an app to be determined.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 1:57 PM.