Fall fishing opportunities abound

By Melanie Lekocevic

Capital Region Independent Media

COXSACKIE — Eager customers lined the sidewalk outside Simone’s Kitchen as the eatery planned to reopen Wednesday for the first time in two years.

Sidelined for a couple of years initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and then labor shortages, the popular eatery that draws in customers from all over southern Albany and Greene counties reopened its doors last Wednesday.

And customers couldn’t be happier.

“I missed Simone’s,” said Cindy Blunck, of Coxsackie, one of the first customers to pick up a meal at the newly reopened and redesigned Mediterranean-inspired restaurant in Hope Plaza on Route 9W. “I used to be a regular customer. The food is healthy and it’s good and it’s different — there is nothing like it anywhere around here.”

Owner Bashir Chedrawee said it felt good to be back in business in Coxsackie.

“We were closed for two years,” Chedrawee said. “It was COVID related. After COVID, this town unfortunately had a shortage in the labor force. Even after COVID it was difficult to get together a full team and we have a pretty big team, so after COVID it became exponentially worse. We were growing and we had another project in development and it just became unmanageable to have management doing operations here, so we ended up deciding we would be closed for a little while. We decided to use that time to update the space; we did that and it took a while, but we got it done.”

Chedrawee also owns a Simone’s Kitchen in Schenectady and is developing a third restaurant in Albany.

The menu is inspired by Mediterranean cuisine, with wraps, pockets, falafel, lahm-ajeen (spiced meat pie on pita), za-atar pie and many more options, but their specialty is their mezza bowls.

“We are known for our mezza bowls, which is original to us,” Chedrawee said. “We take all of these small little plates and created a whole meal out of them.”

Mezza bowls are intended to replicate what a genuine Mediterranean meal would be like.

“If you were to sit down at a table in Greece or Lebanon, they would furnish your table with all of these different options and you would make a plate,” he said. “We did the same thing, but in a bowl.”

Simone’s also offers pastries and specialty beverages — anyone for baklava or matcha rose latte?

Who is the inspiration behind Simone’s Kitchen? None other than Chedrawee’s mother, Simone. Good food is a way of showing love, she said.

“In our culture, cooking and food are a part of showing love, so it was always something important when I was growing up. Good food was always present,” Simone Chedrawee said. “It makes you feel loved when you have good food. We wanted to show that love to others.”

Indeed, as customers lined up outside the restaurant and Simone Chedrawee opened the door for the reopening, she welcomed everyone inside and called out, “We love you all!”

The community was one of the things that drew the Chedrawees back to Coxsackie.

“When we first opened the restaurant, we were surprised at how supportive and loving this community is,” she said. “When we had to close, it hurt me because I love this community. I was really looking forward to this day. I really love the loyalty of this community. It’s amazing.”

Simone’s Kitchen will be open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. through the spring and is expected to expand its hours in a couple of months. You can check out the online menu at ordersimones.com.