Staying consistent with eating healthy is sometimes easier said than done, which is why it never hurts to get help with quick and easy meals that are packed with flavor. Luckily for Montclair, a brand new restaurant is opening up to help make healthy eating as easy as possible. worldFLATS — which is opening up at 58 Church Street in Montclair — provides an easy solution to healthy eating with grab-n-go vegetarian + vegan meals made from recipes around the world. Keep reading to learn more about worldFLATS and the grand opening offer happening this weekend.
The Spark That Started worldFLATS
Five years ago, Zareh and Nvair Beylerian chose to give up eating meat. Surprisingly, the most challenging thing wasn’t giving up steak or burgers, but rather Armenian food like lahmajun from their childhood. Lahmajun is a millennia-old Armenian/Arabic/Turkish staple made of ground lamb mixed with minced tomato, parsley, onion, and peppers and spread on thin lavash bread before it’s baked in a wood-burning oven. Nvair experimented in her home kitchen to make a lahmajun substitute by replacing the meat with brown lentils — and voila, the first recipe for worldFLATS was born.
Identifying a gap in the quick-serve food industry, the pair jumped in with two feet and launched worldFLATS, creating tasty, healthy, plant-based grab-and-go meals. The menu at worldFLATS features 11 varieties of flatbreads inspired by cuisine + spices from around the world, soups, salads, and desserts. Consistent fan favorites are the Roma, Athena, and Rio Grande flatbreads. The restaurant aims to help more people choose to include plant-based meals in their regular routine.
“We feel that the only way [to encourage more plant-based eating] is to make cravable, fast and easy meals available at an affordable price point. worldFLATS is naturally delicious, good for you, and good for the planet,” Nvair shared with The Montclair Girl.
Customers can dine-in, pick-up, or order online for delivery within a 5-mile radius of the Montclair restaurant. The menu and friendly customer service are seamless no matter how you order your flats.
Behind the Scenes at worldFLATS
Once Nvair and Zareh decided to launch a quick-service restaurant concept, they hired Executive Chef Luigi Tripodi. Chef Luigi has been in the restaurant industry for decades and has been known in the past as ‘the meat guy.’ The Beylerians figured who better than the meat guy to develop savory toppings and dressings for innovative vegetarian flatbread recipes.
Zareh and Nvair are very hands-on but stay out of the kitchen and prep line, which are Chef Luigi’s domains. He has trained nearly 50 full-time and part-time employees, including the commissary this past year encompassing all three worldFLATS locations in Montclair, Ridgewood, and Paramus. Operations within the restaurant are overseen by Cheryl D’Angelo, the manager, who ensures everything runs smoothly at the Church Street location.
“The best part of our business is being able to offer customers delicious food — flats, soups, salads, desserts, and our house-made Agua Frescas (fruit infused water with a touch of agave). We just happen to be plant-based,” Nvair mentioned. “I love it when a customer tells me that they don’t miss the meat and especially when someone reports that when they took dinner home to their family and it wasn’t revealed that it was plant-based until after they ate! They’re usually very surprised and ask for more.”
The Montclair location of worldFLATS is actually the third, with two other locations in Paramus and Ridgewood. Future sites on the horizon include Jersey City, Hoboken, and Asbury Park.
Don’t forget to stop in on Friday, May 20th through Sunday, May 22nd to take advantage of this BOGO deal. worldFLATS is located at 58 Church Street in Montclair. You can call 973-433-5900 or reach out to info@flatsfood.com with questions.
