John Hosein didn't want to close Mom's Pizza in Arlington, Virginia because the shop's been there 32 years and in the end it wasn't COVID-19 that did it, but the small mall it's in being renovated into other uses.

Mom's is named for his mom, Rahma, who's from Athens, where she met his father and the family came to the United States in the 1970's, to New York but then Hosein attended George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

He told ARLNow that opening a restaurant, with his brother, was his dream and that all he had to do was rely on his mother's menus and inspiration and what he learned from starting life in Greece, which soaked in.

 “If you watched 'My Big Fat Greek Wedding,’ that’s exactly us,” he said, the Greek influence in a Jordanian family carrying over into the United States.

“My mom was a really great chef. So, we named it (after her) and have continued calling it that since,” said Hosein, who now owns the restaurant with his wife Manal, showing you don't have to be Greek to be Greek.