Made in Vienna: From Tehran To Virginia

Café Nemooneh may have just opened last month, but fresh-baked Persian pastries have been a Maleki family specialty for decades.

"We have been doing this for five generations," Owner Sam Maleki said. "We serve only traditional specialty type of pastries, and it has been a big success."

The legacy of the Café Nemooneh Bakery started in 1960, when Sam's grandfather opened the first establishment on Shmeran Street in Tehran, Iran.

In 2004,  Café Nemooneh Bakery opened in Chantilly and on the day of its fifth anniversary, the Maleki family announced plans to continue the legacy in Vienna.

"We have a big Vienna population that came out to Chantilly for our products, so there was a demand for this," Maleki said. "We're very well known in Iran because we opened there so long ago."

True to the cafe's roots, a painting of ancient Persian soldiers guarding the Apadana Palace of the Persian Empire capital of Persepolis hangs on the wall inside. Persepolis is known as "Takht-e-Jamshid" in Iran, and represents the throne of Jamshid, a mythical King of Iran.

Not everything the shop offers, however, is Iranian. Their selections include  Lebanese, Turkish and Italian pastries, among others. Their signature pasry is the nemooneh, but "our top seller by far is our selections of baklava," Maleki said.

In addition to the Iranian baklava that they sell, on any given day there will be another 15 to 17 different types of baklava representing just about every taste bud.

"I have never seen anywhere with this much of an extensive collection of baklava," Maleki said. "This is something that we have been specializing in for a long time and they are very popular."

All of the café's pastries are made fresh daily by hand.

"The good thing about our products is that we don't work with any artificial flavoring; we use all natural ingredients," Maleki said. "We make everything from scratch in our Chantilly store and bring it over here on a daily basis."

A large Iranian population in the area, which often comes through Vienna for, makes it an ideal location, Maleki said. The rest of the café is set up with a few tables, but that number will expand once they start serving sandwiches and cold cuts in the future. They plan to provide Wi-Fi and already serve coffee, gelato, espresso and other pastries.

Looking ahead, Maleki said the ultimate goal is to open other locations in Tysons or DC in the coming years.

But even if the café expands, its mission will always remain simple, Maleki said.

"To provide our customers with the best possible customer service, while providing excellent Persian pastries."

Café Nemooneh is located in the Village Green shopping center, 525 Maple Avenue West.