1981 Maybe it was foreshadowing. At age 2, I was given my first dining table. It was destined that tables and feeding people around them would be a huge part of my life.
1987 Food as language. Born to a Lebanese mother & a Sicilian father, my brothers & I learned to express who we were through food.
1989 Back in the one room schoolhouse of my religious school, I decided I wanted to be a lawyer like my dad. I asked my mom for a briefcase instead of a backpack, and she kindly complied.
1991 My father always said, “A family that cooks together stays together”. My dad carried the family tradition of sausage-making- originally started by my grandfather at a small Italian grocery store in New Jersey- to Ohio. That meant running a homemade sausage business from our house and traveling around to county fairs and festivals every summer and fall.
2000 & 2006 My first taste of traveling alone meant total freedom and exploring street food culture around the world. This is when the travel bug first bit and it has never let go.
2002-2008 Of all the gin joints in the world, he walks into mine. While bartending at the Pennsylvania Avenue Pour House in D.C. (the definition of a neighborhood gathering place), I met my husband, business partner, and some of my best friends. Plus, I can still make one hell of an apple martini.
2007 I thought the only way to change the world would be to go to school for it. Turns out there are other ways to make change. Ask me more about how a masters in public policy is part of what I do!
2007 Rose Previte marries David Greene in an old Detroit Motown nightclub, 320 beloved souls gathered for a grand extravaganza. R.P. + D.G.
2009-2012 3 years and 32 countries later. DG takes the job of Russia correspondent for NPR. I couldn’t get a visa to work, so we traveled like crazy people. I had extra time on my hands to figure out my life with the help of a very long journey on the Trans-Siberian Railway across Russia.
EST. 2014 During that long Trans-Siberian Railway ride, I dreamt up the concept for Compass Rose and returned to D.C . with the gumption needed to bring it to life. Breaking rules from the very beginning, we opened Compass Rose.
EST. 2017 We opened Maydan to honor the diaspora, the hearth, cooking with grandmas & the food of the Middle East.
2017 The deserts, waves & mountains of California called to me. David took the job as NPR Morning Edition host based in LA. Our bi-coastal living adventure began. Luckily, I love being on an airplane.
EST. 2020 With a mission to tell the stories of winemakers who are pushing boundaries, challenging conventions, and changing the face of the wine world as we know it, we started Go There Wines.
EST. 2022 An ode to my grandparents, the founders of a Lebanese-American social club in Akron, Ohio named Kirby Club, we opened a restaurant by the same name. Kirby Club 2.0 tells their story – and the stories of many Middle Eastern-Americans – through food.
EST. 2023 I finally decided to start a proper “group” for all of our concepts called No White Plates. We build restaurants that are about more than food. Our spaces are about experiences; the ones you come to the table with and the ones you create with us.