From a food truck window to Foundry Row
Yossef’s Laffa-Milia is a family kitchen before it’s anything else — Yossef and Hana Shavi, their kids, and four years of a food truck that built a following one order at a time.
An auto shop, then a food truck, then a fryer that grew up
Before there was a menu, Yossef and Hana Shavi spent more than twenty years running Pikesville Automotive. The food truck came after that — small on purpose, a fryer and a few salads, parked first across from Seven Mile Market and later right in Star-K's own parking lot in Pikesville. About four years of that built the following that filled the counter when Yossef's Laffa-Milia finally opened as a brick-and-mortar at Foundry Row, next to Wegmans.
The truck itself didn't retire — it still runs Tuesdays at the Pikesville Farmers Market.
Three people, three ways into the same kitchen
Yossef
Brings the technique — patient, traditional, no shortcuts. Falafel and hummus are his department, and he treats both as something you don't rush.
Hana
Born in Poland, raised in Israel, and still a Stevenson resident today. Hana cooks from memory and instinct rather than a written recipe — the home-cooked side of the menu is hers, and it tastes like it.
Alona Shavi-Tajer
Their daughter, born in Israel, runs day-to-day operations and pushes the menu forward — the Around the World Series and the rotating specials are where she takes the kitchen somewhere new without losing the point of it. She's a Pikesville resident herself.
It runs like a real family kitchen — discussion, tasting, some disagreement, and everyone eating the result before it goes on the counter.
“Food should feel welcoming. That there should be something for everyone at the table.”
That's the whole philosophy, and it's why a meat-focused, Star-K certified menu still makes real room for vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free eaters instead of treating them as an afterthought. See exactly how that works on our Kashrut & Our Kitchen page.
The food truck story, told a few other times
Yossef's Laffa-Milia has been covered by Kosher Food & Drink, Jmore and the Baltimore Jewish Times, and featured on The Israel Connection Podcast — all telling some version of the same arc: two decades at Pikesville Automotive, a food truck built on a fryer and a few salads, and a family that landed at Foundry Row.
Foundry Row, next to Wegmans
10210 S Dolfield Road, Owings Mills, MD 21117. Open Sunday and Monday–Thursday, closed Friday and Saturday. Call (443) 340-8335, or send the form and we'll get back to you.