Team Behind Compass Rose opening Maydan, “wood-fire cooking concept”, at 14th and Florida Ave, NW this Fall

Florida Ave just east of 14th Street, NW

Sweet! Lots more info on the 2nd restaurant from the Compass Rose folks.

From a press release:

“Rose Previte and Mike Schuster, the team behind Compass Rose, are excited to announce a new wood-fire cooking concept to open in the fall at the Manhattan Laundry Project, located at 14th St. and Florida Ave. Maydan, which means a square or gathering place, is inspired by Rose’s experiences living in Russia and traveling to the Caucasus and surrounding lands. It’s an Arabic word, but is used throughout the Old World, from India to Northern Africa, in countless languages and places in between.

Maydan will feature a large bar on the lower level, with family style dining above. It will be a place to gather and break clay oven-baked bread, and will showcase dishes that are not well known in America, coming from the rich traditions of cuisines like Iranian, Georgian and North African. These food traditions are each distinct, yet are also inter-connected through spices and breads. Inspired by the flavors of forgotten and forbidden lands, ancient east-west trade routes and cooking techniques, Maydan strives to reframe Old World stories and methods for a new, hungry, and inquisitive audience.

The co-executive chefs are Gerald Addison and Chris Morgan. Both chefs have spent time at wood fire concepts including Parts & Labor, where they worked together and at the Dabney, where Chris was a sous chef. Gerald is currently the executive chef at Compass Rose. Chris is most recently a chef for the Red Apron Group and will be joining Gerald in June. They will run both kitchens.
The chefs will be traveling this summer to cook in the real kitchens and squares of this region, and will bring these traditional flavors back to use at Maydan. Members of the Compass Rose team will join them at different parts of their journey. People can follow their travels on the Instagram handle: @maydandc.

About the team:

Gerald Addison is a D.C. native. His first professional cooking gig was at Restaurant Nora in 2003. In 2007, he honed his technical skills at culinary school in New York City, where he worked until 2012 at Alta Restaurant and The National. Then it was out to California for a few years before Addison returned to D.C. to be the sous chef at Eat the Rich. He also opened A Baked Joint as the head chef and worked as chef de cuisine at Baltimore’s Parts & Labor. Addison is a student of global cuisine, making him the perfect fit for Compass Rose and now Maydan.
Chris Morgan is from McClean, Virginia. He started his cooking career in San Francisco, where he worked at Zuni cafe under the late Judy Rogers before he helped to open Company with his mentor, Karen Hoffman. He started there as a lead line cook and worked his way up to sous chef. He then went to work for chef Charles Phan’s Slanted Door Restaurant Group under Melissa Perfit. When he moved back to D.C. in 2013, he became the executive sous chef alongside Chef Ed Witt at The Partisan. He left The Partisan to help open The Dabney as sous chef, where he worked under the tutelage of Jeremiah Langhorne. Chef Nathan Anda, his longtime friend and former boss, invited him to work as a chef for the Red Apron Group, helping him manage all of his properties and work on food research and menu development. He will start with Compass Rose and Maydan in June.

Rose Previte comes from a food loving Sicilian-Lebanese family. She spent years helping to run her mother’s catering business and later her restaurant. Rose spent over a decade working in bars and restaurants. She worked at Mike Schuster’s Pour House for over six years, while getting a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from George Mason University. Rose married David Greene, NPR journalist, and joined him when he was posted in Russia. In almost three years time the couple traveled to 30 countries, absorbing their street and marketplace foods, and the energy of diverse cultures. These travels reinforced her strong commitment to community, and to offering people the chance to taste delicious foods and discover the meaning behind them, which inspired the opening of Compass Rose in 2014.

In the first year it was open, Compass Rose was on every best restaurant list in DC. The Washington Post wrote about its signature dish, khachapuri seven different times. Compass Rose has been on Eater’s 38 Essential Restaurant list since opening and has been mentioned in local and national media including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Food & Wine magazine and Bon Appetit. The restaurant has been nominated for a 2017 RAMMY for best casual restaurant. Rose was recently featured in the April 2017 issue of Washingtonian Magazine as one of DC’s 40 under 40 top professionals to watch. Working with Mike Schuster to open Compass Rose fulfilled a life long dream of having her own place in the neighborhood and Maydan will further and deepen that commitment.

Rose and her husband David live a bi-coastal life with homes in DC and Los Angeles. Her husband, David is one of the co-hosts of NPR’s Morning Edition and spends half of his time working out of the organization’s Culver City, CA office. They absolutely love to travel and do so every chance they get.

Mike Schuster is the owner and operator of taverns in Washington, DC since 2003. He is currently co-owner of four establishments including Compass Rose, which opened in the spring of 2014. Schuster brings financial and operational experience to the challenge of transforming ardent vision into a place patrons can call their own. He strives for neighborhood-centric establishments that are comfortable, inviting, relevant to as many people as possible, and that truly provide value to the community. A business consultant in his former life, Schuster was born in DC where he proudly resides with his wife and three kids.”