WASHINGTON — Ali Astoria opened Maa’s Chicken so he could give people in D.C. what he calls “real food,” not out of a box or a freezer, but something he made himself from scratch. But three months in, he’s feeling the effects of the federal surge on his business.
“It was just a dream, you know?” he said. “And then you get to the dream, you think the dream is nice and then it becomes way harder.”
Astoria worked in restaurants for more than a decade, bussing and waiting tables. But he always wanted to own his own place…