Tucked in a residential area on Greenwood Avenue, Maha's Fine Egyptian Cuisine is exactly what its name suggests: excellent food from the country that's home to the Giza pyramids. On any given weekend, the small ornately decorated restaurant draws lineups that spill onto the street as crowds patiently wait for their turn to dip balady pita bread into foole.
It's dishes such as foole (an Egyptian fava bean stew) and award-winning lentil soup that proprietor Maha Barsoom proudly doles out. They are the same dishes she raised her children Monika and Mark Wahba on, even after the family immigrated to Canada in 2000.
Now in their 20s, Monika and Mark are just as vital to the success of Maha's. The bright Leslieville spot is a prime example of how intergenerational restaurants are shaping ethnic dining in Toronto. Millennials have come of age to play a role in the family businesses, and use their knowledge of marketing and contemporary Canadian tastes to help their parents appeal to trendy foodies.
Ms. Barsoom is responsible for most of the cooking, while her husband, Hani Wahba, takes care of the finances. Mark leads the front of house and coffee bar, and Monika assists with cooking, runs the social media and manages staff.
It was Monika who, while designing the menu, pointed out that they needed a gateway dish to attract customers who are unfamiliar with Egyptian cuisine. So the date grilled cheese was born. It is a sandwich inspired by meals the family would have when visiting Bedouin friends in the desert – specifically scrambled eggs mixed with sauteed dates, which is also on the Maha menu.
"Monika is very brilliant when she comes with ideas," Ms. Barsoom says.
The same intergenerational co-operation can be credited for the success of Banh Mi Boys. The sandwich and taco shop first opened in 2012 on Queen Street West at Spadina Avenue, and the proprietors have expanded to two more locations.
Brothers David, Philip and Peter Chau started the fast-casual spot after years of working with their parents on the family business, a banh mi shop called Nguyen Huong. After immigrating with his family from Vietnam in the 1980s, their father, Toha, worked factory jobs until he saved enough money to start his own business.
His takeout spot that started near Spadina and Dundas has now added three more locations – in North York, Scarborough and Vaughan. The family business also started producing its own prepared meats and breads in their own food-production facility.
Through running their parents' factory, the brothers were able to experiment with recipes which eventually prompted them to open the original Banh Mi Boys restaurant on Queen Street West. There wasn't a cut of meat they couldn't get to try recipes with, Mr. Chau recalls.
The opportunity to experiment combined with their hands-on business experience made their transition to restaurant-ownership a natural one. The difference was they could combine the Vietnamese flavours they had been selling with the tastes of many other cuisines.
"We didn't do anything traditional, we wanted things like Korean barbecue and Chinese steamed bao," Mr. Chau says. Growing up in the multicultural hub of Toronto exposed the brothers to a world of different flavours, such as kalbi beef, kimchi and pulled pork, which you can find on their menu of banh mis and tacos.
The brothers credit their parents for helping with their business success, right down to their mom's advice on seasoning.
For Ms. Barsoom, the goal remains helping her kids. She sees the restaurant they opened together back in 2014 as a way to take care of them, even after she hangs up her apron for good.
"I just wanted to leave them with something," she says.