Suzy Phillips has been making tabouleh for decades, and what she serves in her restaurant, Gypsy Queen Cuisine, is widely considered the gold standard of the iconic Lebanese salad.

And yet, she says if her mother Salwa Farah were still alive, she’d be telling her she wasn’t chopping it right. Chopping is the key to the perfect tabouleh. “You have to chop the parsley really fine, and you have one chance to do it,” Suzy explains. “You can’t go over it more than once because it will pulverize the parsley and the tabouleh will be wet. You’ll be mixing it with olive oil and lemon juice, so if it’s not chopped properly, it will be mushy and nobody wants that.”

Suzy has been in her mother’s kitchen since infancy, spellbound by the scent of what Salwa was cooking, and the sight of all she was doing – “It was magic!”

Her first task as a very small child was peeling potatoes, with a paring knife, not a peeler.  Eventually she was allowed to mix the tabouleh – once everything was chopped and diced.

There are only two people in the Gypsy Queen kitchen she trusts with making tabouleh. “Even then, I go behind them every once in a while and watch to be sure. I have turned into my mother!”

That’s a good thing, as her mother inspired the dishes she introduced to Asheville when she officially launched the Gypsy Queen Cuisine food truck in 2011. Her reputation as a fighter for acceptance of food trucks in Asheville preceded her. “People followed my battle against a handful of people who didn’t want food trucks in town. I was very vocal and in the news a lot.”

Word of mouth brought people to the roaming pale green truck to try Lebanese fare. “I was definitely going for street food because I was limited in what I could do in the truck. Also, I had never cooked professionally before and I didn’t want to overwhelm myself.”

Suzy credits her commitment to quality ingredients for her success. Though she often had to travel out-of-state to obtain some of the Middle Eastern products not available in Asheville at the time, fresh produce was right at her fingertips thanks to local farmers.

Even before rolling out the food truck, a brick-and-mortar restaurant had been her goal, and in 2015, she took over the small space on Patton Avenue that already had a kitchen, left by previous tenants. After a deep clean, painting the exterior and interior in warm Middle Eastern hues and adding ambient décor, Gypsy Queen Market & Deli opened October 28, 2015.

There, thanks to the bigger space, additional staff, more equipment, and a shawarma machine, she vastly expanded her menu for dining in and stocking the deli case.

Ten years later, core items on the Gypsy Queen menu remain the Lebanese fries (they boast a cult following), fried cauliflower, hummus, baba ghanouj, falafel wrap, chicken shawarma wrap, lamb and beef shawarma wraps, and lamb kafta panini.  “When I opened the restaurant, I went crazy!” Suzy says with a laugh. “I wanted to share so much of me on a plate. But we did baby steps, this type of cuisine is very time consuming.”

She points to the grape leaves that take two days to make; and kibbe, which is a croquette stuffed with lamb and pine nuts, the vegan kibbe is stuffed with walnuts and onions. One of the most popular items on the Gypsy Queen menu is entirely Phillips’ invention – the Yum Yum wrap. “One day I was bored and hungry on the truck, so I put all these things into a pita – fries, cauliflower, hummus, parsley, tarator and hot sauce, and I was like, ‘Oooo, that’s yummy!’ The Yum Yum wrap was born.”

Though Greek gyros and Lebanese shawarma are similar in concept and cooking of the meat, the bread is different – the pita on a shawarma is thinner and bigger – as well as the sauces. “We don’t use tzatziki. We do toom, a garlic sauce, or tarator, a tahini sauce. We put pickled wild cucumbers on the chicken and lamb, and pickled turnips and beets on the vegan falafel wrap.”

In 2018, she got a call from the landlord of an address on Haywood Road in West Asheville she had hoped to lease in 2015 for Gypsy Queen. “They  asked if I was still interested, and though I knew it was insane, I said yes! I love that space and knew exactly what I wanted to put there.”

It was not a repeat of Gypsy Queen, but something radically different, suited to the neighborhood and dictated by a kitchen with no hood vent. “I am not vegan, but I love the challenge of making vegan food and I love fresh squeezed cold press juice. I thought we could make delicious healthy smoothies, unique blends of juices, sandwiches and salads, and do breakfast and lunch.”

Mission accomplished. The menu at Simple Cafe & Juice Bar is, well, simple. Dr. Feelgood – celery, spinach, apple, ginger, pineapple, turmeric – is the most popular juice, and favorite smoothies are the Cocoa for Coconut and Kind of Blue.

The most ordered sandwich – the Avocado Tempeh Melt – was inspired by an old school Asheville vegan restaurant, Max & Rosie’s (RIP). “When I worked downtown at Doc Chey’s (also RIP), I used to stop by Max & Rosie’s on my way in. The Avocado Tempeh Melt was my introduction to tempeh, it blew my mind, and I could not get enough.”

Max & Rosie’s closed in 2005, but the sandwich lives on at Simple, one of several vegan items on the menu. Options for all diners are consciously executed at Gypsy Queen as well, where for every animal protein, there is its vegan equivalent.

“On the truck, catering and in the restaurants, I love to make good food, and I love to make all the food taste good for the good of all people.” It’s as simple as that.

More on Gypsy Queen Cuisine and Simple Cafe & Juice Bar. 

— Kay West

Photos courtesy of Button Meana Group:
First photo: Chef Suzy Phillips outside Gypsy Queen on Patton Ave.
Second photo:  Gypsy Queen’s famous Lebanese fries
Third photo: Simple’s vegan crunch wrap supreme