18 culturecheesemag.com I N N OVAT I O N 202 3
C H E F ' S D I S H
W
hen Alex Tewfik opened Mish
Mish in 2022, his sophisticated
yet spirited restaurant on
Philadelphia's bustling East
Passyunk strip, two items
absolutely had to be on the
menu: One was a baby octopus dish,
inspired by an eye-opening visit to
Michelin-starred Thai restaurant Uncle
Boons in New York City years ago. The
other was Armenian string cheese.
With a bottle of Portuguese bubbly
in hand, Tewfik moves through the
restaurant's candlelit dining room with
the easy enthusiasm of someone who's
exactly where he should be. He started
working in restaurants as a teen, then
continued while studying business at St.
Joseph's University. The Mish Mish space
across from the Singing Fountain—a hub
of activity on South Philly's restaurant
row—is where he worked a formative
serving gig after college, and when that
restaurant closed in 2021, Tewfik's old
boss helped him clinch the deal.
Before Mish Mish, Tewfik was better
known for writing about restaurants
than working in them. After a pandemic
wake-up call, he left his job as food
editor for Philadelphia Magazine to open
the restaurant he'd always wanted. "A
tiny, tiny menu. Very easy, simple dishes,"
he says. "I just want it to be a really fun
night out." He gave chef Kyle McCormick,
an alum of Top Chef winner Nick Elmi's
restaurant Laurel, free reign to create the
menu—as long as those dream dishes
were represented.
Armenian string cheese, the pulled-
curd braid studded with tiny black nigella
seeds, was served at family gatherings
in Tewfik's Egyptian-Russian household
when he was growing up. Now, it's a
nod to how his upbringing shaped his
vision for Mish Mish. "There's this kind of
Middle Eastern hospitality, which includes
"Every plate on our
menu, if you just
made more of it and
put it in a serving
platter, could exist on
the dinner table at my
house," Tewfik says.
