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Join us as we engage with Simone and Noelle, the dynamic duo of sisters behind the beloved Mediterranean restaurant Sassool. They share insights into their journey from growing up in the family restaurant business to managing two successful locations today. Discover the secrets behind their award-winning menu, the essence of Lebanese hospitality, and their unique event space, FigMINT Farms. Whether it's embracing their cultural roots, innovating with new recipes, or navigating the challenges of running a family business, the sisters offer a deep look into their culinary world and the passion that drives them. Stay tuned till the end for a unique lightning round of fun questions!
00:00 Introduction and Greetings
00:43 Clarifying Names and Background
02:45 Podcast Format and Guest Introduction
05:34 The Story Behind the Restaurant
07:24 Working with Family
12:05 Secrets to Restaurant Success
14:57 Menu Development and Social Media
18:02 FigMINT Farms: A New Venture
19:48 Mint Harvesting and Family Gatherings
20:57 Creating a Dinner Experience in the Woods
22:22 Future Plans for FigMINT Farms
24:48 Incorporating Lebanese Culture in Business
28:56 The Annual Hummus Mix-Off
31:31 Rapid-Fire Questions and Personal Favorites
35:49 Social Media and Locations
Creators and Guests
What is What’s Up, Wake?
What’s Up, Wake covers the people, places, restaurants, and events of Wake County, North Carolina. Through conversations with local personalities from business owners to town staff and influencers to volunteers, we’ll take a closer look at what makes Wake County an outstanding place to live. Presented by Cherokee Media Group, the publishers of local lifestyle magazines Cary Magazine, Wake Living, and Main & Broad, What’s Up, Wake covers news and happenings in Raleigh, Cary, Morrisville, Apex, Holly Springs, Fuquay-Varina, and Wake Forest.
008 - Sassool Sisters
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Melissa: [00:00:00] So
just thank you. This is Joe. Nice meet you. Producer. We just bragging
Simone: about how much. Oh man. That's awesome. Thank you. I did not realize it was, I mean, you said it was close, but Yeah, it's super close. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
Melissa: Yeah,
Simone: I telling
Melissa: you, are you? Yeah, go ahead. Yeah. I didn't know which one was gonna down here.
Good to see you. Um, good to see you too. This is the first time that I literally cannot go over time because he has somebody booked right after us. Okay. Um. But before I get started, I wanna make sure I'm pronouncing some names right? Mm-hmm. How do you say your dad's name? Mooner. Oh, I was saying it right?
Yeah. That's the first time in my life I was saying it, right? Yes. He always does that whole hand thing. Moonie. Mooner. Oh, moon. Okay. Okay. Okay. And I, I [00:01:00] feel like I read this two different ways. Cecil is named after your Aunt Cecilia or your grandmother? Grandmother. Grandmother. Somebody has that wrong and I ha, I need to figure out, because I was like, I thought it was their grandma.
Joe Woolworth: Yeah, it's written on the wall.
Melissa: Yeah. Yes. Yeah, maybe that's where I've seen it. I was like, wait a second, and then I saw that it was your dad's aunt. I was like, I don't think it's his aunt. Okay. I'm glad I'm asking 'cause I'm gonna mark that out. Um. So his mother, and I always pronounce it Saul, but is it Saul?
How do you, is it sa I mean, you say it right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. All I, I was just telling Arla I had such a sa, Saul sa sa. I don't
Simone: think
Melissa: we're too about it. Maybe. Maybe you're the reason I thought I was saying it wrong. You said Saul. I was like, dang, that sounds American. American accent, right? Yeah. But Saul, yes.
Okay. Sa Yeah. Yeah. Good. Then for what son? [00:02:00] Not adding my southern twang to it. Okay. And, um, Simone and Noel, and I think that was the only thing I have the clarification question about.
Yep. For social.
Melissa: Oh,
very good. Thank God I did my makeup. I was like, I think it's a podcast, so Right. I'm not gonna see us.
Right. Yeah.
Melissa: She'll make you look
good. Oh yeah. She's
Simone: awesome. She's face me, yes. Ai. Correct.
Melissa: There are letters and there nobody trying to be focus on, but I'll be like.
Simone: Awesome. Please. She'll get all up in your face. Yeah.
Melissa: Can't wait.
Simone: I
Melissa: love, um, so I start out every episode with just an introduction of Okay.
Who the guests are. Mm-hmm. Then I'll go into questions. I end every episode with a lightning round type of questions. Yep. Um, [00:03:00] and in your case, I have five, a couple might throw you, I actually thought about writing you and saying just so you know, but. It might be awesome. I can't wait. Wait. It might be more fun.
Can't wait to just hear off the cuff. I
Simone: always give really weird answers when it's surprise.
Yes. Do you get, does this get uploaded straight or like No. Okay. So your episode,
Melissa: I need to look it up and I'll send you a message. Okay. I can't remember when yours is coming out. Mm-hmm. Sometime in April. Yeah.
Joe Woolworth: Cool. I'm gonna go back and edit everything, so if you wanna say something again, just be like, oh, I'm gonna say that again. Okay, good. Trust me, I have
Melissa: to do that all the time. That's why I am glad it's not live. I would put my foot in my mouth a lot. Let scoot over.
Joe Woolworth: All right, I'm ready and rolling when you guys are.
Melissa: Okay. This dynamic duo are not only sisters, they managed the two location Well, let me, let me go see. I know I was gonna have to start. Is it two locations? 'cause that's another thing I read that you guys had a place at one of the food halls. We did, but no, we [00:04:00] closed like right after Covid. Okay. I knew there was something else I needed to clarify.
Mm-hmm. And that was it? Mm-hmm. Okay. I'm starting over. This dynamic duo are not only sisters. They manage the two locations of one of the triangle's most beloved restaurants. Their father Mooner brought his love of Lebanese food and traditions to the local landscape several decades ago. Introducing our area to his mother.
Cecilia's recipes and love of hospitality. Their restaurant is the 2025 Wake Living Reader's Choice Award and Care magazine. Maggie Award for best Mediterranean restaurant. Needless to say they're a big dill and the local food eat scene. Let me say that sentence again. Dang it. I was trying to be punny.
Needless to say, they're a big deal. Dang, darn it.
Definitely put on social. Yeah.
Melissa: Needless to say they're a big [00:05:00] deal in the local foodie scene. It's also one of my personal favorite places to have lunch or pick up dinner, like for a, a family friend that had a baby or had surgery. So this interview is meant to be, please welcome Simone and Noelle, better known as the Sisters of saso.
Hey, thank you guys for being here. I'm really excited. I see you guys at the restaurants or like at events and stuff so often, so I feel like I know you probably better than I do.
Simone: I know this is, this is fun actually. Meeting up to talk. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll officially know you guys
Noelle: well after this. I. So tell us a little bit about how Saul came to be and who is named after, I kind of touched on that, but if you'll go into a little bit more.
Sure. So UL is my grandmother's nickname. Her name is Cecilia. And her father, when she was a little girl called her ul. So that's what we named the restaurant after. Um. My father, uh, was co-owner of Neman for [00:06:00] many, many years with his brothers, and Simone and I both graduated from NC State the same year, even though we're three years apart.
Simone is incredibly smart and I am a little slow, just a
Simone: big high achiever.
Okay. Okay. Uh, so once we both graduated, my dad, uh, split off and opens the school with us. So
Melissa: UL opened after you guys were, so you, you, in other words, you helped him create it? We did. Or was it already Oh, I didn't realize that.
Yeah. Yeah. Of we thought he created it and then, then you guys came to work for dad. Mm-hmm. After. Okay. We
were working at Neman. Um mm-hmm. Like we, we grew up in the restaurant industry. Oh, I'm sure. Mm-hmm. So, I mean, from the age of like three years old, we were in the restaurant just doing whatever, but. Uh,
Simone: yeah.
I think at the time that he decided to split off and create. So you were the office manager? Mm-hmm. At Neon and I was basically a full-time cashier. I worked [00:07:00] every day after school, I worked all the weekends. It was how I. Paid for all my cheerleading tournaments, you know? Um, we were definitely, were you a cheerleader at State?
No. Oh, okay. At Cardinal Gibbons? Yeah. Oh, neat. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. In high school, or no, sorry, in, uh, college I just jumped into working and then I worked three jobs at once. Yeah. And
Melissa: you were
Simone: an overachiever and graduated. Okay.
Melissa: Okay.
Well, people always say that you should avoid working with family, but in your case, you've never known anything different. Your restaurant is literally all about family from the namesake to your father starting it so long ago. Now you two helping run it. What is the secret, would you say, of working together?
Or is it really just simply that you don't know?
Simone: Outside of this? I, I think you touched on it as you kind of started the question. Um, I don't think family business is for everybody. I think I've seen a lot of, uh, drama in certain family [00:08:00] businesses, but. I think because we started this business based on our experience with our culture and our passion for, for food and for feeding people and bringing people together and seeing their smiling face, I.
It ends up being the thing we always fall back on. It's that passion that continues to drive us forward. So in the beginning, of course, there were, you know, uh, conflicts of, uh, of personality and we were really trying to just figure out how to work together at this level. Um, but in the end, we always stayed inspired and we always had a reason to figure it out because all of us individually love.
Hospitality, love to feed people, and we feel so passionate about my grandmother's recipes and about sharing fresh food with the triangle.
I think it also helped that the three of us are very different and our strengths are different. So I think what has made us so successful is that we're not on top of each other.
[00:09:00] Like we trust each other to run the department that we're in. And we're very good at the area that we're in. I'm an operations, Simone is in marketing and branding, and my dad is a pro at being an owner.
Simone: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that was something that we, we kind of shifted. We grew into, yeah. After maybe the first four years.
I mean, the first four years we were really trying to figure it out. We were like, you know, we're all working 80 hours a week. We have no days off. We have no idea what to do, but to work hard and make it work. Yeah. And then we figured out, okay, we're, we're constantly stepping on each other's toes. We're constantly bickering.
We're doing the same things. Like Noelle would do the same thing that I'm doing. And so it was kind of like a competition. Yeah. Yeah. And that created friction. And so, yeah. Once we divided and conquered. Mm-hmm. Like that was really the, the secret to success. To, to work together. Yeah.
But throughout, I mean, it's been very peaceful and I think we've all been very, uh, intentional about wanting to get along and respecting each other.
We've never wanted [00:10:00] to, you know, be that story of like a family business, that everybody's always yelling at each other.
Melissa: Yeah. And I would think there's certainly an element of, you've gotta put your ego aside Yeah. For the, for the greater good
and we love each other. Mm-hmm. I mean, that's my dad and my sister.
Melissa: Yeah. Yeah. Was there ever a time in your lives that you grew up thinking that you wanted to do something different? Or was it always this, this was always your goal and, and dream.
Simone: For me, I, I constantly thought about the restaurant and hospitality and so growing up, you know, middle school, high school, I was really trying to figure out where I was gonna fit and where I could thrive.
And I had, you know, big dreams of being a millionaire and mm-hmm. Like all of these things that, that kids and, and adolescents think about. Um. But I always knew that hospitality was the, was the area I was gonna end up in. And as I became more of an adult, you know, obviously I'm still maturing to [00:11:00] this day, but when I was becoming more of an adult, I, it, it felt right to be with my dad and to pursue this, this dream.
Of, of doing ul, you know, together with him.
Yeah. I like how you said that it always did feel right. I, um, I guess I was always more of like the rebellious one, but I never like left the family business, you know, like in the beginning I never imagined that this would be our career and our, our dream. Um. But I never left and I never like wavered from doing this.
And then it just turned into like, no, this is what we're doing and this is our, our dream and what we're doing together.
Melissa: I read a, a crazy stat recently and, and hopefully I'm not too far off and you never know when you get on good old Google what, what you're gonna read that's hogwash and what's what's real, but.
That was like the most southern thing I think I've ever said. So [00:12:00] our mom is from Wilson, so we Oh, really? We get the Southern, oh yeah. Okay, so you're used to hogwash. Yeah. Okay. A significant number of restaurants around 30% don't make it past their first year, and the failure rate increases substantially to roughly 80% of restaurants closing after five years.
So Sewell has been in business since 2011. Mm-hmm. Your dad has been in the restaurant and bakery business for nearly five decades. Mm-hmm. Which is astounding. Yeah. What is the secret, would you say to the restaurant business specifically? Is it the hospitality that you talk about?
Simone: I think, I think it's two things.
I think it's really finding. What is that connection piece that your customers are looking for? You know, for places like Chipotle, like they are looking for that quick, consistent stop. For someplace like Saul, they're, they might be looking for something more warm and fuzzy and, um, of course consistent.
'cause we keep, [00:13:00] uh, you know, a constant menu as well. But just really honing in on what your customers are looking for, I think is, is huge because a lot of times. Restaurants will start off good and then they'll start changing things, you know, maybe based on wishes of a chef or something like that. And it, it really kind of just derails their, uh, their initial path and, and I think sometimes that causes, that, causes failure.
Um, totally forgot my second.
I do think, what do you think? I think, yeah. Uh, we're very in tune with our customers. Yeah. Um, we are very grateful for them. We listen to them. Um, people, you know, contact us through the website that goes directly to me. They talk to us in store and like we, we take what they have to say very seriously.
Um, and we always consider it even if it is off the wall sometimes. Um, even if it's hogwash, it's hogwash. Does that see, I like
Melissa: that full circle moment. Yes.
Simone: Oh, wait, I remember what I was gonna say. Um, I, I think that, you know, in a restaurant it's, it's [00:14:00] definitely a different animal than. Any other industry because you really, you're dealing with your consumer, but you also are dealing with other businesses and you're dealing with vendors and it's, it's kind of like you, your communication and your circle, your network is, um, a big variety.
Um, and I think the inability to, to change or, or to be able to take those really tough and unpredictable days. That in itself, I think can be a downward spiral for restaurants if they just, if they cannot recover from those days that it's like everything is happening at once. Um, you know, you go through waves of turnover, you experience different types of managers that walk in your door and, um, it's just you have to be able to pivot.
Mm-hmm. Constantly pivot or constantly evolve or, you know, um, not evolve away from your connection piece with your customers. Yeah. But evolve internally and strengthen yourself constantly.
Melissa: So you mentioned the, the [00:15:00] fact that your menu is mostly consistent, but one thing I love, I follow you guys on social media.
I love your social media, so good job with that. Thank you. Um, I love when I watch you two in the kitchen with your dad. Yeah. And you guys are collaborating on new menu items and trying to mix new things together to add for like a month or whatever. I love the, um, the. Hummus of the month, is that what it's called?
Mm-hmm. Love the different flavor. Yes. Mm-hmm. So, um, is being collaborative with menu items something you've always done? Or is that a new Oh, okay. 'cause I love that.
Yeah. We love it too. We started and it makes me wanna come in
Melissa: to try the new things too, so it is smart. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
We, um, I think one thing that's been a transition in the last few years is like.
My dad wanted to be like really authentic and be Lebanese, which he, I mean, he's from Lebanon. He wanted to kind of stick with those Lebanese roots, [00:16:00] whereas I guess Simone and I are more like on social media and Instagram and looking at all the viral food trends, and we have had either other family members or chefs in the past that were.
Middle Eastern and we would rely on them heavily to come up with the monthly specials and these kind of like authentic flavors. Um, but within the last year, I would say, um, we've transitioned to doing it ourselves and coming up with the specials ourselves and proving the recipes ourselves. So we've, all three of us been much more hands-on with, um, menu development, recipe development, monthly specials.
And just the food in general. Mm-hmm. We've been way more hints on.
Simone: Yeah. And we started, we started doing these like, I guess it was like a bimonthly, now it's kind of quarterly where we meet up at his house. We all have our recipe that we're going to start developing and we all taste it. And, um, we, you know, one reason we started this, other than trying to innovate and, and still bring authenticity to the [00:17:00] menu, uh, without those other family members or other chefs contributing.
Um, was to really tell our customers more of our family story. We kept having brainstorming sessions on like, okay, like. When you, when you walk in, do you know it's a family restaurant? How are people gonna know it's a family restaurant? And we then we were thought, okay, what can we do on social media that will contribute to our followers or our customers?
Really knowing that like this is a family full blown operation. And so these cooking sessions. Like, we make sure to take a lot of footage of them because we could do it without footage and still create those specials. But we try to have like all of the, like my mom has her phone going, I have my phone going.
Mm-hmm. Um, just because it shows your personality high too. Yeah. We wanna
Melissa: highlight the group. Mm-hmm. And I've, I've never met your dad, and so I feel like I've known him now because I see these videos and. He is adorable and he is. It's, you can see how your relationship with each other too, and it, it, it makes it more [00:18:00] special.
So kudos.
Simone: Thank you.
Melissa: Let's talk about figment farms. Mm-hmm. I have not been there yet. I've seen the pictures and it looks like a magical oasis in the woods. Picture. A long family style grazing table under light, strong trees, starry skies with Mediterranean food cocktails, and a fire pit. It truly looks, enchanting is the best word that I, I could use.
Tell us what, and it really honestly sounds like my perfect night. Mediterranean food, uh, fire pit and cocktails. Sign me up. Tell us what Figment Farms is, what it started out as. 'cause I think it started out as something different and what your dreams. Yeah, so it
Simone: started as really just an investment for my dad.
He wanted to invest in something. He bought a large piece of land right off 64. Um, I think in total it's about 27 acres with seven acres having a house on the back, which he, [00:19:00] he rents out for long term rentals, but. The front, uh, 20 acres is what we can now call Figment Farms. Um, and in the very beginning we really just started with our mint garden.
So we wanted to start having like, um, you know, a way to grow some of our produce in-house. Our produce is by far the, the largest item that we get delivered, like, I guess the largest order that we manage at Sewell. I mean, obviously all of our salads, even all of our hot food has a ton of vegetables in it.
Mm-hmm. You know, he was, he was saying, okay, we could offset some costs, but that's not the most important thing. Let's just, you know, let's, let's have a, uh, closer connection with the, the food that we're producing. And so, um, he built a mint garden, which last year he doubled the mint garden, doubled the size of it.
Um, last year he harvested 1800 pounds of mint to go straight to both locations for, mostly for all of our tki. That's a lot of mint. He uses so much mint. Yeah. It's
[00:20:00] way more than you think too. Yeah, because mint is super light.
Simone: Yeah. So a pound is like tons. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It it takes
a lot of mint.
It's ridiculous
Simone: to create one pound. Yeah. It has taken so much of his time in, in a good way. Mm-hmm. He's been able to devote himself to this new project, so he started the mint garden and has grown that, but. You know, just passively we would meet over on that piece of land. Uh, 'cause there was kind of like a rundown shelter.
We'd meet there for family events, you know, we'd hold birthday parties out there mm-hmm. For about two years. And then my dad was like, you know what, like this, this is such a peaceful place, like you were saying. Mm-hmm. It, it has such magic and, and it just makes you feel so good being out here. It makes you feel like you're away from everything, even though you're 14 minutes from our carry.
Carry location. Um, you know, we need to have people here, we need to rent it out for events so other people can feel that same thing. And then, so we rented it out for about a year where rentals really started to pick up. And then I, you know, [00:21:00] I, I'm a big. Person who, who browses social media. So of course I saw, you know, these, um, kind of like experiential dinners in different settings.
And I was talking with Noelle, I remember, and I said, let's have a dinner in the woods. 'cause people don't get to do that usually. And we can make it with this long table. We'll make it a site to see. My dad already had the market lighting going. That was like his, his part in this. Um, but Noelle and I really created this idea of having a beautiful dinner in the woods, and it has just grown from there.
I mean, we've added things to this dinner experience. We've, we had, um, two in the fall. Three this spring. The last two, like there's one next week and there's one in May. They're both sold out. We've added three for this fall. And people are sending emails like, please put me on your, on your, um, yeah, I wanna write tickets.
Reserve reservation list. Yeah. So it, it's become something really exciting and I think it is because people do not [00:22:00] usually eat in the woods. They can't find a peaceful place. This huge plot of land with a pond, with a. You know, with a fire pit, with a now newly constructed shelter, we call it the Pavilion.
Um, it's, it's all these amazing elements that you have. I. On one property and, uh, combine it with family style. So Sewell food, and it, it just makes for a really exciting evening. So
Melissa: where do you see this going? Figment farms. Where, what is the next step, especially since you have so many people asking about it.
Simone: Yeah. Uh, if, well we had our dad sitting next to us, there would be a long, long list of what we're gonna do out at farms.
Melissa: A wish list. Yeah.
Simone: It really depends. Um, 'cause right now. Um, there's so much growth along 64. Many of the properties that are currently there are being bought up and so, or rezoned. And so we don't really know at this point, um, what the future of the land is going to bring.
But if, if we can stick [00:23:00] around on that piece of property, which is our wish. I know that he would like to get it rezoned as commercial. He would like to put a se out there, uh, like with a rooftop. Nice. And like, you know, Ooh, that would be nice. So he is a, uh, huge admirer of Angus Barn and how Van Yu has just created this destination.
Mm-hmm. Um, she's a friend of the family, a big mentor, and, um, so he. Sees figment as being something that will evolve into a destination. He wants it to be the Mediterranean destination. Mm-hmm. Which really just gives me chills, um, right now, but it, it does depend on, I guess, the future of the development along the highway because I know that.
Town of Apex has a lot of say in it and mm-hmm. Um, there's a lot of moving come on town of Apex. I know, I know, I know. We're begging you. Well, a lot of moving parts moving
is attending the dinner on Saturday, so, and he's awesome. Hopeful. Well, I've never met him, but hopefully, uh, we get, we wanna set a good impression, a good word with him.
I,
Melissa: fingers are crossed. And I love that you mentioned Van, your [00:24:00] and, and Angus Barn and that you guys kind of use them as a mentorship relationship. Mm-hmm. Um, just bringing two. Two local businesses together and working together. I, I think that's lovely. Thank you. Mm-hmm. Yeah,
Simone: van is is awesome. We've even had, um, a manager or two go and do like a week long internship in her kitchen.
Oh, that's neat. Yeah. She's amazing. Very generous with her time and her team's time. Mm-hmm. Uh, just for our managers, like, because compared to Angus Barn, we're such a small operation. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, and so do
professional development there and see what, like a larger scale operation. How they handle it.
Melissa: Mm-hmm. I've always heard amazing things about that whole crew at Angus Barn, so it's really good to hear that it's true. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, very
Simone: true.
Melissa: So how do you incorporate, you've mentioned a lot about the Lebanese culture. What makes this culture unique and how do you try to incorporate it in all aspects of [00:25:00] your businesses?
Simone: Well, I mean, I think that we really try to stick to that Mediterranean diet. Mm-hmm. And, and the Mediterranean diet is, is a flexible one. I mean, it's kind of like pillars, you know, as far as like when you're using oils, you're gonna be using olive oils and um, there's gonna be loads of produce in your food and lots of legumes and.
Um, mostly a plant-based diet, although there is, you know, chicken and seafood and we've, we feature beef and lamb on our menu. And, um, I think kind of sticking to those, those principles of the Mediterranean diet has been very crucial for us and for our menu. Even when we introduce new items, they stick to those principles.
Um, but also like within the restaurants, we've done a better job in recent years as far as interior decor and, and making it feel like it has some personality. Because if you've been to our locations, you know that they're in shopping centers, and we kind of, when [00:26:00] we started leasing the spaces, it was just like a white shell.
And you just deal with this, this shell, I'll never forget a
customer like made the comment, it's like a big white box. And I was like, is that a comp? This We might need tell you something, I think. Thank you for being
Simone: here. But yeah, we've, we've had, um, a student from ECU, he painted these two beautiful murals at both locations.
That's really kind of a replica of my dad's village. It's not exact, but he took a picture of the village. And then kind of did his own iteration of it. And both murals are different and they're, they're both extremely beautiful. We now have, um, walls that we call our photo walls. It's from our 2019, uh, trip to Lebanon where we went with my dad for the purpose of really finding these hole in the wall places and, and finding authenticity and, and seeing how real Lebanese chefs cook.
And we did just that. Like it was an amazing, amazing trip. We have canvas photos from that [00:27:00] trip, which we now have on the walls at both locations so people can see the Lebanese landscape, but also the true food. Um, and then we, you know, we of course have a market section where we feature Mediterranean and Lebanese market items because as much as we want people to dine in and, and eat with us, we are just so passionate about cooking and, and bringing that, that.
Type of food home. And so the market section is really to inspire people to, to get cooking and, and to really enjoy the experience in the kitchen as much as we do.
Melissa: I think that's one thing about Cecil is I, I, I feel good about eating there, not only because I'm supporting local, but also because, you know, they say Mediterranean diet is mm-hmm.
The best diet in the world that you can, that you can, you know, base your, your health around. Um, everything that I see on your menu. You can just tell it's healthy, you [00:28:00] know?
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Melissa: Even if it does have some sort of, there's, there's a couple things that have a mayonnaise base, right? I mean, there's one thing or chicken salad.
Chicken salad. Mm-hmm. There's one type of chicken salad. Right. Even though I really love the Mediterranean chicken salad mm-hmm. Which is, but that's getting me away from the mayonnaise based type of Right. Chicken salads, and so it, it. It makes you feel like you're doing something good for yourself. Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Most of,
Simone: most of our menu, I'll say 90% of our menu is extremely healthy. Yeah. And it's because it uses really whole ingredients, uses a lot of produce, and then we also prepare it super fresh. So we're changing out those salads that you see. 'cause like this, our menu is on display and so most of it.
And so we're changing out those salads every 30 minutes, every hour to make sure that, that the customers are getting the, the freshest bite.
Mm-hmm. And even though it's healthy, you don't have to compromise on flavor or taste like Absolutely not. Yeah. It doesn't taste, it doesn't taste like you're eating healthy, you know?
Yeah. It just is good food. Yeah.
Melissa: One of my favorite things you guys do is, and [00:29:00] I, I might be calling it something wrong, but it's an annual hummus Cookoff, is that's, oh, that's mix off. Mix off, yes. Mm-hmm. So you essentially invite just anyone. Mm-hmm. Is that right? To come in with their own hummus rep recipe.
And everybody votes for their favorite.
So it's gone, uh, through different iterations throughout the years. At first it was chefs, right? Right. Yeah. My memory is not as good as hers. So, uh, at first it was chefs, then it was like, uh, food. Food bloggers or influencers. Yeah, food influencers. We invited and then this last year we opened it up to the public and it went amazing.
This was the biggest one we've done. I think we had like 40 or some submissions, and so that's. Way too many hummus for people to taste. And it's also, uh, hard for just the average person to, um. Off 10 pounds of hummus. It's, it's a lot to, oh yeah. You gotta make a lot.
Melissa: Yeah.
Yeah. So, um, we had, we did two rounds.
Yeah. The first round, uh, [00:30:00] we had a panel of judges that were all in the food industry, and they tried all 40 and they voted on the top three. And then the th top three people came and they worked with Simone and I in our kitchen to make a big batch of their flavor. And then we did the second round that people could come and try and vote and, uh, ultimately choose a winner.
And that winning flavor. Which one?
Simone: Yeah, it was a pistachio hummus was the winner. That's right. Okay. And awesome. It was featured for our January special. The winner of the hummus mix off always gets their hummus flavor featured for our monthly special the following month.
Melissa: I loved that one. I think last year it was something, I wanna say beet related maybe.
We had, we've had a
Simone: beet hummus. We've had a tomato. Tomato. Mm-hmm. We've had a garden tomato. We've had a mm-hmm. Tomato jams hummus. We've had a caramelized onion hummus. We've. We've had so many different flavors.
Melissa: It's really, it's such a good way to get your customers involved and feel like they're a part of the magic.
[00:31:00] Um, but it's also, I would think good for you guys as well because it's, you're not thinking about an onion hummus perhaps, or pistachio hummus, but as getting you to think outside of the box too. Absolutely.
Simone: Yeah. It's really brought a lot of, um. Innovative, like flavor combinations. Mm-hmm. Like with every year's winning hummus, it's, it's never just tomato hummus.
It's like tomato hummus. But what else did they put in it to make it the winning flavor? And it, it's been really eye-opening. It's been awesome.
Melissa: Okay, let's pick up the pace with our, what's up Roundup, where I'll ask a few questions before we come to the end of our chat and either of you guys can answer this or, or both of you.
If you had to trade working with your sister and dad, who would you want to work with? My gosh.
I'd wanna work for myself. I know. I was gonna say I
Simone: wanna work for
myself. Yeah. You just wanna be alone. No, I'd wanna, I've always joked I [00:32:00] wanna be like a travel agent or like design vacations for people. Just 'cause that like I love.
Researching that type of stuff.
Simone: Okay. And I actually now that, yeah, now that I think about it, so there is, uh, this kind of food concept where they cook outside for these large events. And so I would wanna do that. I've done tons, I've taught tons of cooking classes, like over 40, you know, in conjunction with si.
Um, and I love cooking outside over a fire. So I would, I would love, I think it's called Terra Firma on Instagram or whatever, but. That is what I want to do. So you'd both still be
Melissa: in the
Simone: hospitality Yeah. Industry in some capacity. Okay. Doing the exact same thing.
Melissa: Who is your dream dinner companion?
Gosh, I'm so bad at answering these off the cuff.
I'm gonna say Noelle is,
Melissa: oh my god. No's my dream. That's the cheat answer. We will not accept it.
I think we've made some like really good friends locally, like prey from uh, Cheney. [00:33:00] Mm-hmm. Uh, she's amazing. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I would love to have dinner with her 'cause she's so much fun. But she's. As well.
Yeah. She's also in the food business. She is. She is amazing. You should have her on the podcast. She's amazing. So you could have
Melissa: chosen Oprah, you could have chosen, I don't, Elvis don't like celebrities
like that.
Melissa: Yeah.
I feel
Simone: like they're a little fake Is so unusually genuine. Yeah. And I haven't met her.
Oh, she's amazing. My gosh. You have to. I would. You're gonna need a longer podcast session. Yeah. Okay. And you have her. But I would choose probably Chet Kumar. From Aja. Yes. Because. She's a rock. She's literally a rock star. Yeah. Is she, she's And she's a chef. Mm-hmm. Oh. Um, like she has so many different layers to her.
Ah. And we've only met her once when we, when we dined at Aja, we were
Starr.
Simone: Yeah. Like, she's super cool. I would love to sit and have dinner with her. Yeah.
Can you make that happen? Yeah,
Simone: please. Hey, we're putting
Melissa: it it out. Let's all have a ladies dinner. We're putting it out into the universe. Let's have a ladies dinner.
So if they're listening, we will. Yeah, we will have, have all of us go out. That would be amazing. Thank you. What is your personal go-to order at [00:34:00] Cecil? Mm.
Simone: I love our chicken shawarma. I eat it out of the pita so I can just really enjoy all of that. Garlicy flavor, and I always eat, uh, quinoa tabouli as well, like on the daily.
So those two are, are my favorites,
Melissa: believe it or not. Those are two things I have not ordered there. I, I feel like I get the same thing every time because I know it's so good. It's tough to change hard. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
I really like our new quinoa salad. I'm like obsessed. I've been having a pound of it every day for lunch.
Nice. And then, uh, the jalapeno hummus with pita chips is another go-to.
Melissa: Okay. And I'm gonna, I'm, I think I'm gonna. Get you with this question. Forget the Kardashian sisters. If you had your own reality show, what would you call it? Ooh. We've always talked about having a reality, reality show. We have. Yeah. I think you guys could, that's why I even thought about this question,
Simone: but probably would be a lot less drama than producers would want, though.
I, yeah, but you would not want all that drama. That's too much. I, [00:35:00] I would maybe call it like. Uh, I don't know if this is like going, Aw, this is totally contradicting the, the comment about drama, but I was gonna say getting sassy with cso.
Okay. That's not bad. Yeah, I would tune in. We've been kind of, um, branding ourselves as the CSO sisters.
Right. We started our own Instagram, just us
Simone: dining
out and reviewing restaurants. Oh,
Melissa: I didn't know
that. Yeah. Okay. I will follow that. Raleigh Foodie News. Mm-hmm. By the ful sisters.
Simone: Okay. Because we had too much time on our hands. Yeah, yeah. You're just, you're so bored. Yeah. Yeah. But we love like giving the restaurant operator take on it instead of just the consumer take.
We're not just talking about how good the food is or whatever, but we're talking about their intentional interior design. We're talking about the flow of the restaurant, we're talking about lots of different things. Staffing sometimes. Yeah.
Melissa: Yeah. So speaking of that, tell everybody where we can follow you on social media.
Simone: Yes. So you'll find csol Cafe on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook and [00:36:00] Twitter. Um, and then if you're looking for Figment Farms, you'll find that on Facebook and Instagram
Melissa: and where. Is each location I have only been to the Kara location, which is on Kilda Farm. Yes. Road near Trader Joe's. Exactly. Where is the North Raleigh location?
Simone: The Raleigh location is off six Forks in Strickland in the Harvest Plaza Shopping Center. It's in the same shopping center with Zaxby's and Goodberries. Okay. Yeah, right in, in North Raleigh.
Melissa: Okay, great. Mm-hmm. Thank you girls so much. Thank you for being, this is awesome. I, I'm gonna tell you, y'all are my new favorite guest because you brought me some food.
Oh, good. Well, we hope you enjoy. Yeah, we're gonna raise the bar for future guests. Everybody has to bring me something. Put it on the list. Yeah. That's awesome.
Thank you. Thank you. What you, there's a.