Nene's Restaurant & Bar introduces Eastern European flavors to Tampa Bay

Nene's Restaurant & Bar

Nene's Restaurant and Bar brings a specialized blend to Georgian, Ukrainian and Azerbaijani traditional dishes. The restaurant is located at 4328 West El Prado Boulevard, Tampa.

TAMPA, Fla. - For a cultural foodie fan, the culinary experience offered at Nene’s Restaurant and Bar is a specialized blend of Georgian, Ukrainian, and Azerbaijani traditional dishes. 

The family business presents recipes that are produced from the old ways — created in the way one would expect if traveling in Eastern Europe or Western Asia. 

What they're saying:

"My mom is basically the backbone of the business," said owner Sanan Gajievi, "[She] integrated her recipes and combined two cuisines together, predominantly Georgian and Ukrainian cuisines and like some dishes around the area, the same ethnic foods that she is expert at, per her experience."

His mother is executive chef, Mekhpara "Masha" Gajievi. 

"We are originally born and raised as a family in Georgia, and we're ethnically Azerbaijanis. My mom integrated two major cuisines together, Georgian and Ukrainian cuisines," said Gajievi. 

The menu features favorites from those countries and from the family’s background. 

"So we also have a dish that we have from Azerbaijani cuisine, which is called ‘Khan Plov.’ It’s pretty big, and it’s in lavash bread and there is rice inside and meat," said Gajievi. 

The dish is a lavash bread crust battered with butter. This bread shell protects the rice pilaf, meats, fruit and nuts inside the pot as it is baked. 

But it’s not all just the food on the plate that Nene’s offers from the old country; they also offer region-specific wines.

"Georgia has a traditional wine making style which distinguishes itself from the rest of the world," said Gajievi. "Wine is basically a part of Georgian identity… We have the wine that has a different color too, like a blue wine, and green wine."

The color comes from the grape skin, and the blue and green variations are specific to Georgia only.

The backstory:

The birth of the restaurant started in the heart of Gajievi’s mother.

"My mom, who immigrated to US in 2018, she started to like search her like first-ever dream, I guess, of owning a restaurant and … cooking her own food for the people who are unaware of the recipes that she is expert of," he recalled. "She basically drew a plan of all the menu dishes, all specific things that things that she's going to be having in the restaurant. Including the name, Nene’s Restaurant and Bar."

That name, Nene’s, has the most personal connection to her heart.

"It comes because my daughter," said Gajievi, "Wherever she worked, she asked us to take her to Nene’s Restaurant. My daughter was referring to her restaurant she worked for as Nene’s Restaurant because … she calls my mom ‘Nene’."

"We're going to name it Nene’s Restaurant. And she's (Gajievi’s daughter), she's going to remember it for her whole life," he said. 

What you can do:

Nene's Restaurant and Bar is located at 4328 West El Prado Boulevard, Tampa.

Their menu and hours can be found here.