Cousin’s Incredible Vitality
For eight months after his conversion Ak continued to run Cousin’s, but he felt increasingly guilty. “Why should I try to make money on something that is not healthy?” he says he asked himself. Plus his heart just wasn’t in working with meat any longer: “I lost my passion to go behind the grill and make the kebabs,” he says.
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This wasn’t the first time Ak’s life dramatically changed course. He left Turkey at 20 to “discover the world,” he says, and landed in New York after months on the crew of a cargo ship. He got his feet on the ground, then set off again with plans to drive cross-country, but halted in Chicago one sunny spring morning. “I said, you know what, I’m going to stay here, just like that,” he says. In 1990, having worked for several years at Italian Village and other restaurants, he opened the first incarnation of Cousin’s in Lakeview. By 1994 he’d opened three more locations. Business was good, but four years later Ak was burned-out. “At the time I said, this is too much work, it’s no good,” he says. He sold all four restaurants and started over as a general contractor.
Ak, as it turned out, was already using Wolfe’s raw cacao powder and nibs in his desserts, such as a chocolate mousse made with pears and figs. Persico offered to be his wholesale supplier. She also suggested the addition of “Incredible” to the restaurant’s name and threw out some ideas for fresh decor. Before long she was part of the Cousin’s makeover team. “It evolved very quickly into a closer-knit relationship,” she says.
