Maydan Market has been years in the making. Los Angeles was a natural home for it, since Previte has been bicoastal since 2017, when her husband, David Greene, was co-hosting NPR’s Morning Edition. Previte first saw the building in 2019 and quickly fell in love with the space and the area. “I was reminded of 14th Street in D.C., so it really felt like home,” says Previte. “Behind it, it’s all residential—beautiful homes, beautiful families. All my places are neighborhood spots, so I felt very comfortable there. It’s D.C. with palm trees.”
Before she could move forward with any plans, COVID-19 hit. Previte didn’t begin work on the project until 2022, and even then progress was slow as the pandemic’s aftershocks continued to ripple through the supply chain.
It was never intended to be a carbon copy of her D.C. restaurants. Instead, it draws on the vivacious energy of the markets Previte has visited around the world—from the souks of Marrakech to Seoul’s night markets. “They’re an ancient way of doing business, eating, and coming together,” says Previte. “I wanted to bring one to the U.S. and create that same energy.”
The menu at Maydan carries over roughly 75 percent of the dishes from the D.C. original—including the signature slow-roasted lamb shoulder rubbed with Syrian seven spice, ribeye accented with blue fenugreek and adjika, and a roasted head of herb-crusted cauliflower—but adds new options, including vegetable-focused plates such as urfa-spiced, brown-buttered sweet potato and roasted baby eggplants with pickled golden raisins. Guests can opt for a full-service meal or sit anywhere in the market, order from any concept via QR code, and have their food delivered tableside.
Open for breakfast onward (the other concepts open only for lunch and dinner), Compass Rose carries over just one dish from the original D.C. location: the beloved khachapuri, a blistered bread trencher swaddling za’atar-dusted melted cheese and a sunny-side-up egg. Other offerings include a Lebanese breakfast with labneh, feta, manoushe (Levantine flatbread), and vegetables; a labneh parfait with apricot gelée and granola; and a pistachio bun. The restaurant opens onto a covered patio, where terrazzo tiles line the bar and floor and pink flowers dot the trellises outside.
The outside concepts are leased for at least a year but will eventually rotate. “It was very overwhelming, because we were trying to pick the best of L.A. to put under one roof,” says Previte.
Among the additional ventures is Club 104, a month-long rotating residency program. This month’s resident is Melnificent Wingz by Melissa Cottingham, who specializes in extravagant wings (think bacon-fat-confit Tennessee whiskey and Buffalo blue), mac and cheese, and fried-chicken sandwiches fired up with hot honey. There’s also Sook, a well-curated boutique from Previte that sells everything from Lebanese olive oil and Palestinian za’atar to pottery and plateware.
