For this episode of The Dish, Charlie Breitrose of Watertown News and I visited Caspian Persian Cuisine over at 72 Bigelow Ave here in Watertown. Co-owner and manager Mohsen Tehrani shares some of what makes their restaurant special and its history from 26 years in Watertown Square (as Molana) to their new location in the East End. And we got to chat with master chef and co-owner Hadi Eghbali about his 50 years of cooking as he grilled kebabs over an open fire.
Listen to the episode and then head on over to Caspian Persian Cuisine yourself to say hello to Mohsen and Hadi and try the kebabs and exotic rices!
(You can also read Charlie’s article about our visit on Watertown News.)
Photos below by Charlie Breitrose/Watertown News
Find Caspian's hours, menu, and other info online at CaspianPersianCuisine.com.
Read Charlie's article of The Dish on Watertown News
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Thanks to podcast promotional partner the Watertown Business Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on connecting local businesses and strengthening our community. Check them out at watertownbusinesscoalition.com.
Thanks to promotional partner Watertown News, a Watertown-focused online newspaper. Check them out at watertownmanews.com.
This program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.
Transcript
Matt 0:02
Hi there. Welcome to the Little Local Conversations podcast. I'm your host, Matt Hanna. Every episode I sit down for a conversation to discover the people, places, stories, and ideas of Watertown. This episode is in a series called The Dish that I do with Charlie Breitrose from Watertown News, where we visit different Watertown restaurants to learn about its signature dish, but also capture some of the stories that make the restaurant and the people behind the food unique. You'll also be able to read Charlie's article about our visit over at Watertown News as well. This time we went over to Caspian Persian Cuisine over at 72 Bigelow Avenue here in Watertown. We are welcomed by the friends and business partners Mohsen Tehrani and Hadi Eghbali, and longtime employee Rose. If you remember Molana from Watertown Square, these are the same folks, but they've moved across the city to the East End near Coolidge Square. One quick thing before we jump into the conversation.
Matt 0:51
I'm currently running the second annual Little Local Holiday Giveaway, where if you sign up as a monthly supporter of the podcast, you'll get a gift card or other gift from a great local business. I'll give more details at the end of the episode, or you can pause the episode, head over to LittleLocalConversations.com slash friend, to become a Little Local Friend, then come back to listen. All right, let's jump into the conversation and the kitchen with Mohsen and Hadi.
Matt 1:16
Hi, do you want to introduce yourself and give the name of the restaurant for people who are listening?
Mohsen 1:22
Yes. My name is Mohsen Terrani. We are Caspian Persian Cuisine. Originally we were Molana restaurant. In Watertown, we've been in this business for 27 years. 26 years at Molana. We've been here at Caspian and 72 Bigelow Ave since January 1st of 2026.
Matt 1:46
And where was Molana for people who don't know it?
Mohsen 1:48
Molana was on 5 Spring Street, Watertown Square, since 1999 to 2025.
Matt 1:55
And what's the story? How did you get involved in the restaurant? What made you want to start a restaurant?
Mohsen 2:00
Actually everything goes on Mr. Hadi, who's our partner, and he's a chef. He's been in this business for 50 years since he was a young kid. He used to come from school, go into the kitchen and watch his mom cooking. He was standing on the chair to see his mom cooking. So he developed the interest in cooking since he was very, very young. So he has a passion for this business. You know, a lot of people get into business accidentally. But Hadi from the beginning, he knew that was his profession. So he really loves cooking. He likes everything to be perfect. And at Molana and Caspian, we always use a top quality meat, rice, spice, like saffron. So we are very, very particular. And everything is cooked to the order, and everything is fresh. So we make everything daily. The chef comes in, and before the restaurant opens, he prepares all the kebab and the rice and the stews and make sure that's enough for the day. So we don't keep anything here, nothing is pre-cooked, everything is cooked to the order. We have all kind of kebab like beef, lamb, fish, cornish hen, chicken breasts, ground chicken, we have different kinds of stews, and different kind of exotic rice, like a rice with sweet sour cherry, rice with lentil and raisin, rice with orange peel and almond, rice with lima beans and dill. We have also rice with red currant, barberry.
Matt 3:48
And how are those recipes developed? I mean, like are these family recipes?
Mohsen 3:52
Yeah, kebab is very standard, but everybody makes it different. The way the meat gets marinated, that's what makes a big difference. For marination, each chef uses their own ingredients, their own secret, like especially stews. As I said, pretty much you can go in every Middle Eastern, Mediterranean restaurant to order kebab, but not all the kebab are prepared to say. The amount of time that meat gets marinated is important. Everything has to be proportional. If you use one thing more than the other, you would change its taste. It would affect the
Mohsen 4:33
taste.
Matt 4:33
Yeah. Well, it looks like Charlie's over there with Hadi. Let's take a look . So yeah, he was just talking about the kebabs. It looks like you're cooking up some kebabs now, right? So I know you don't want to give away your secret recipe for the marination, but can you tell us a little bit about the process of making a good kebab?
Hadi 4:55
Marinate , onion is first. Onion for marinating, salt, and pepper. And sometimes to lamb chop , garlic herb, too, is good for marinade for lamb. And that's it.
Charlie 5:13
It seems like you're very similar to like a barbecue .
Matt 5:15
Yeah. For people who are listening, he's constantly turning the meat to make sure it's all cooking evenly over an open flame here. It's not like sitting on an actual surface. So he's really tending to the meat constantly here. It's very process heavy here.
Charlie 5:31
Look really good. Nicely charred on the outside, but.
Matt 5:35
But not burnt.
Charlie 5:38
No. I was just watching another show where they're talking about this, and it's interesting to watch it not in a pan, not roasted in an oven. It's just kind of like right there, like an indoor grill.
Hadi 5:50
Yeah, sometimes this kind of restaurant is busy, because this grill is full, and a lot of order is there after that, you know. And just it's not , it's not easy cook.
Matt 6:00
How many are you managing at once sometimes? Are you managing like 20 skewers at a time when it's busy?
Hadi 6:05
Yeah. Look at the skewer and after they're used . Some days, Saturday, maybe more than 200, 300, sometimes up to 500
Charlie 6:15
In a day. Wow.
Mohsen 6:16
Yeah.
Charlie 6:16
So Mohsen mentioned that you began cooking when you were very young. How did that happen?
Hadi 6:22
Yeah. I was a baby. So something like eight, nine years old, and come from school back home and watch my mom or something in the kitchen. That time I liked that. Step by step, and saw my mom and after that, I make food, make kebab. Now it's 50 years I am a chef.
Charlie 6:45
Wow.
Hadi 6:46
Iran and here together is more than 50 years.
Charlie 6:49
And are these, Matt was wondering, are these recipes basically the ones that you would have cooked with your mother?
Hadi 6:53
No, it's just my mother's is a recipe for house food, same as a stew, same as a soup or something. Kebab, no, from a restaurant or from another chef or something like that.
Charlie 7:08
And do you make any of the stews?
Hadi 7:12
Yeah, right now I make everything.
Charlie 7:16
Oh . And I mean, I saw you pulling the meat out of the little tubs. How long do they marinate before they're ready?
Hadi 7:23
Some kebab is eight hours, nine hours, some kebab is 12 to 24 hours.
Charlie 7:30
Really?
Hadi 7:30
Yeah. Beef need more time. Yeah, beef need more time. Chicken , no.
Matt 7:35
So you really have to plan ahead with that then, knowing how much you you're gonna have, huh?
Hadi 7:38
Yeah. I have one helper, server, is Rose. She's very nice. Customer love her. Right, Rose? I think it's okay. If more cooked, it's maybe dry. And right now it's juicy.
Charlie 7:59
Perfect. Well, let me take some pictures. They look beautiful.
Rose 8:04
Matt, would you like to try a shirin polo, a carrot, orange peel, and almond, and some zereshk berries on top? It complements the chicken very well.
Matt 8:12
Sure. I'll try that.
Rose 8:14
You're okay with almonds?
Matt 8:15
Yeah, that's great. Thank you.
Rose 8:18
Also, Hadi's been Mohsen's partner 27 years today. They're both , he's not only chef, he's an owner.
Charlie 8:25
Yeah, how did you and Mohsen meet?
Mohsen 8:27
A long time ago. 30 years ago.
Charlie 8:30
30?
Mohsen 8:30
Yeah, 30.
Charlie 8:32
Did you meet through friends? Did you go to the same restaurant?
Hadi 8:35
Yeah, friend, and after that together, we opened the restaurant.
Charlie 8:39
Okay. Where were you? Were you working in a different restaurant?
Mohsen 8:43
A long time ago, yes. In Iran I had a restaurant.
Charlie 8:46
Oh, okay. Did you meet in Iran?
Mohsen 8:48
Yeah,
Charlie 8:50
Wow. That's amazing. Well, thank you so much.
Hadi 8:54
Thank you for coming. Thank you , Matt.
Matt 8:57
Thank you.
Matt 9:00
Much cooler out here. You feel the temperature. So, do you want to tell us a little bit about the space?
Mohsen 9:06
Yes. Well, the main reason we moved here is because of this space and also the location. Because at Molana, we were on two floors. So this is one floor, it's a bigger restaurant. People have more of their functions here, like birthday and wedding and engagement, and any occasion, graduation, so we can accommodate more people.
Matt 9:30
Is there an outdoor space back there?
Mohsen 9:32
There's outdoor space. Yes. There's an outdoor patio. And also there 's plenty of parking. And this is like an international neighborhood. You have Armenian next door, you have Greek, Irish, there are a lot. It's a good neighborhood. Like you're in different countries.
Matt 9:50
Yeah, you can get lots of different flavors around and different tastes.
Mohsen 9:55
Exactly. So it makes it nice.
Matt 9:57
Before I forget, at some point, when are you open? What are your hours?
Mohsen 10:00
We are open seven days a week, 12 to 9 p.m. So we believe that restaurants should be open every day. We don't want our customers, regular customers to go anywhere else. If you close, you lose your customers.
Charlie 10:16
So if someone has never been to Caspian or a Persian restaurant, what , is there some dishes you recommend?
Mohsen 10:23
Yeah, so it depends. You know, when the customers come here for their first time, if they're not familiar with the food, we ask them what they like. They like beef, lamb, fish, chicken, cornish hen, lamb chop. We have three different kinds of lamb. Maybe find out what they like. According to that, we can make recommendations. We have rice with different mixed rice, as I explained to Matt. Exotic rice. So everybody, American s especially, they like mixed rice.
Charlie 10:54
I think so.
Mohsen 10:55
They don't like the plain rice.
Charlie 10:56
And Matt was saying that if you're gluten-free, it's no problem, right?
Mohsen 10:59
Yeah, exactly. We have gluten- free. We also have some dishes which is vegan, and we have vegetarian options.
Charlie 11:07
Yeah, because I mean we watched the grill of the meat, but then you can put other stuff on the grill.
Mohsen 11:11
Yes. We have like veggie grilled kebab, zucchini, mushroom, different kinds of pepper, onion, tomatoes, you know. We put them on the skewer and we grill them. We also have an eggplant dish. All our appetizers are vegetarian.
Matt 11:28
What are they like?
Mohsen 11:28
So we have appetizer like a sauteed eggplant, which serves like a dip with pita bread. And we have a special yogurt sauce base. And we have yogurt with cucumber, yogurt with shallot, we have hummus, we also have salad shirazi, which is chopped cucumber, onion, tomatoes, and lemon juice, and mint, dry mint.
Charlie 11:55
Sounds good.
Mohsen 11:56
We also have grape leaves, stuffed grape leaves for appetizer. We also have mirza ghasemie which is an eggplant dish. It's a combination of eggplant, onion, scrambled eggs, and tomato sauce.
Charlie 12:09
Wow.
Mohsen 12:11
It's good. You getting hungry? You're gonna be eating soon.
Matt 12:16
So, what's your favorite part of running this restaurant?
Mohsen 12:19
The people that we meet every day. You always meet people, interesting people. This time of year, because of the foliage, people come from all over the country. They go to Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and they come here, they find us. We meet people from all over the country, all over the world. We have a diverse customer base from everywhere that you can think of. So we always meet interesting people, nice people.
Matt 12:46
And you have regulars that have been with you from your Molana days?
Mohsen 12:48
Yes, a lot of them, they've been with us since the beginning, yes. 27 years, and they never go anywhere. Even if new restaurants open up, they never go try it. They say we get the best here. Why do we have to go try anything else? They're used to the service and the food and us. So they're happy. We have a lot of regular customers that are with us for all these years.
Charlie 13:13
I think you told me that it's not just the Boston area, you get people from far, far away.
Mohsen 13:18
Yeah, some people come from all over New England. They come from Maine, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and also from Vermont. And people come also from New York, New Jersey. They don't come only from New York and New Jersey, from California, from Washington. When they have kids going to school here, or they have a family where they're visiting, and they come here to eat. Because we are one of the oldest Persian restaurants around. So everybody knows us because of the reputation we have.
Charlie 13:52
Yeah. And you like being in Watertown? Is it a good spot for you?
Mohsen 13:56
Very good, because Watertown is a diverse city. A lot of people come to Watertown, especially Iranian, even if they don't live here. The Iranian Association of Boston is next door to us, and all the cultural events, events like Persian New Year and other occasions are held in Watertown. And a lot of the supermarkets, which is Armenian supermarkets, are here, Persian supermarkets are in Watertown. So people come for one reason or the other to Watertown a lot.
Matt 14:30
Do you get some of your ingredients from Persian grocers?
Mohsen 14:33
Yeah, from some , from the supermarket, we get it. And a lot of them we get them from imported. We get it from Canada. And we used to bring them from Iran ourselves when we used to go.
Charlie 14:44
So you can't no longer go to Iran?
Mohsen 14:46
Yeah, because of the way the situation is, and because of the embargo, so we cannot bring anything ourselves directly. Last time we went there was like 15 years ago. Now, because of the situation, it's it's not safe to go. So hopefully things will get better, that we all can go to visit our family.
Mohsen 15:10
So, you want to take a picture of the dishes too?
Charlie 15:14
Yeah, yes, I'll take a few. Thank you so much. It's amazing. What a spread here.
Matt 15:19
Yeah.
Mohsen 15:21
Thank you for coming.
Charlie 15:21
Thank you so much.
Matt 15:22
Yeah, thank you very much for welcoming us in and for the hospitality.
Matt 15:26
So that's it for this episode of The Dish. You can find the warm hearts and warm food of Caspian over at 72 Bigelow Ave here in Watertown. As Mohsen said, they're open seven days a week, 12 to 9 p.m. Food was amazing, fresh off the grill, so go in person if you can. You can check out their website, CaspianPersianCuisine.com, for more info. And again, you can head on over to Watertown News. I'll put a link in the show notes to read Charlie's article about the visit as well. If you want to hear more episodes of the podcast, you can head over to LittleLocalConversations.com. There you can find all the episodes, information on upcoming live podcast events, and sign up for my weekly email newsletter. You can also take part in the Little Local Holiday Giveaway that's running now through November 25th. At the website, you can click on the Become a Little Local Friend button in the menu. Anyone who signs up at $5 a month to support the podcast, or current friends who up their support by $5, will get a great local prize. I've got gifts from Actors' Shakespeare Project, Arsenal Yards' Buttermilk and Bourbon, Condesa, Medium Rare, and Tori Jiro, Artemis Yoga, Branch Line, Coffee Plus 254, Caldwell's Miscellaneous Fancy Goods, Campolongo Cookie Company, Cass School of Floral Design, Eastern Clothing, Fastachi, Gore Place, Historical Society of Watertown, Mosesian Center for the Arts, and Mount Auburn Cemetery. So again, head on over to LittleLocalConversations.com slash friend to sign up and get a prize. Alright, and I want to give a few shout-outs here to wrap things up. I want to give a thank you to the Watertown Cultural Council who have given me a grant this year to help support the podcast. So I want to give them the appropriate credit, which is this program is supported in part by a grant from the Watertown Cultural Council, a local agency, which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency. You can find out more about them at WatertownCulturalCouncil.org and MassCulturalCouncil.org. And a couple more shout-outs to promotional partners. First, the Watertown Business Coalition. Their motto is Community is Our Business. Find out more about them and their events at WatertownBusinessCoalition.com. And lastly, Watertown News, which is a Watertown focused online newspaper. It's a great place to keep up to date with everything going on in the city. Check that out at WatertownMANews.com. So that's it. Until next time, take care.
