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Career Highlights: Since opening his first restaurant in 1985, Andy
Shallal has reveled in the role of host - first in Annandale, Virginia and
then in Washington DC. His first DC restaurant was Skewers, specializing in
Lebanese and Middle Eastern fare at the top of the steps at 1633 P Streets
NW. Later he added Cafe Luna at the street level. Luna Grill in DC and
Shirlington followed. In 2000 Andy opened the theater-themed bistro on P
Street which has become a vital part of the vibrant theater community in the
region.
As a kid Shallal had a
serious speech impediment. He got involved in theater for its therapeutic
effect. "It is amazing how performing can bring you out of your shell and
also help establish those paths in the brain that can help people overcome
severe stutters and other impediments" he says. Theater was an outlet and a
help, but more serious things beckoned. Andy earned a bachelors from
Catholic University and a Masters in Microbiology from Howard University in
preparation for a career as a medical immunologist. After a few years at
the National Institutes of Health he realized he didn't want to spend his
days with test tubes because "I like people too much."
So, in 1980 he left NIH to
enter the career he really wanted. First he set out to learn more about the
restaurant business. He started waiting tables at a restaurant with its
address as its name,
"209½"
on Capitol Hill's Pennsylvania Avenue. Soon, he was the manager of the
place. Later he managed the Foggy Bottom Cafe. Once he felt ready, he opened
his first place in Annandale, a pasta and pizza parlor he called "Little
Italy." Then he made a go of DC locations as well.
In the late 1990s a former
parking lot on P Street was being converted to a Residence Inn with space on the
ground floor for a restaurant and Shallal saw an opportunity to combine his
love of theater with his love of the restaurant business. A recent study for
the League of Washington Theatres conducted the Shugoll Research provided
the evidence he needed of the numbers of Washingtonians who combine dinner
out with their theatergoing. He opened Mimi's - named for the "theater muse"
of La Boheme and Rent - and has made it a center of
theater-related activities, hosting fundraisers for the likes of Signature
Theatre and Arena Stage, the Offies Awards ceremony for the League of
Washington Theatres and employing over a hundred of the region's performers
and would-be performers who need a job as they pursue that ultimate break.
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