Silva & Son in Vienna (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
Inside Silva and Son (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
Silva and Son offers an assortment of cakes and other desserts (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
A Silva and Son customer at the checkout counter (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
A close-up of Silva and Son’s almond croissants, made by co-owner and pastry chef Harry Sarkees (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
Silva Sarkees and her son, Harry Sarkees, are back in business in Vienna.
A half-decade after closing Silva’s Patisserie, the culinary duo reintroduced themselves to their longtime hometown in early July with the aptly named Silva & Son, a new bakery that serves Mediterranean sandwiches, salads and dips as well as bread and pastries.
Located at 448 Maple Avenue East in the Wolftrappe Shopping Center, where it replaced Mixx Delight, Silva & Son doesn’t have an official website or social media presence yet, so it has been buoyed during its first month by enthusiastic word-of-mouth, as former and new customers catch wind of the opening.
“Harry and I can’t thank our old customers [enough],” Silva told FFXnow. “We have old, respectful base of customers that they trust us. They trust our quality. So, we don’t feel it’s [a] new opening. They come, and they encourage us, plus new customers.”
A first-generation immigrant from Armenia, Silva grew up around bakeries, with her grandfather running his own patisserie that her uncles later took over. When the family relocated to the U.S., they had to start from scratch after customs agents at the airport confiscated their decades-old starter dough, the Connection reported in 2007.
However, that didn’t stop a new generation from carrying on the family legacy. Born in Vienna and a graduate of Marshall High School, Harry owned a bakery in Falls Church and served as an executive pastry chef for the Kennedy Center, where he oversaw catering and all on-site restaurants, before he and Silva opened Silva’s Patisserie in September 2007.
The shop in the Glyndon Shopping Center (167 Glyndon Street SE) secured a loyal following with its freshly made breads, cakes, cookies and other sweet treats, but its run came to an abrupt end in 2019 when the owners broke their lease, prompting a lawsuit from their landlord.
According to Silva, they were looking to incorporate gluten-free items after Harry began having trouble breathing, and doctors diagnosed him with a severe gluten allergy. However, workers who were fixing the building’s roof found asbestos, which Harry later learned from a doctor in Germany was the actual cause of his illness.
Silva says the landlord declined to clean the asbestos, so they decided to leave, even though it meant breaking their recently renewed lease.
The space next to The Virginian remained empty until the cookie shop MidnighTreats opened in late 2022, though that closed last September as the chain revised its retail strategy. Texas Donuts is now under construction.
Meanwhile, Harry says he initially considered opening a new business elsewhere, but Silva was adamant that they should stay in Vienna, where the family has lived now for more than four decades.
“We search everywhere, but Vienna still stays the best,” Silva said, praising the town as “beautiful and charming.”
When asked about the main inspiration for the new business, mother and son each cede credit to each other. Harry makes all of the pastries from scratch every day, Silva notes, but he insists that he’s serving more of “a supporting role here” this time.
Co-owner Silva Sarkees makes all of the Mediterranean dips and salads (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)
While the pastries are mostly carryovers from the previous patisserie, with offerings that include butter and almond croissants, babka, chocolate mousse, scones and Belgian chocolate cake, the savory items are all new and made from Silva’s recipes for Mediterranean staples like baba ganoush, hummus, tabouleh, smoked eggplant salad, baklava and more.
Sandwiches are also available, made with freshly baked bread. Options include seared pork tenderloin, Herbs de Provence-rubbed turkey breast, chicken and beef shawarma, and roasted veggie with basil pesto.
“Everybody says their mother cooks well, but truly, truly, truly, she has an amazing, amazing talent, and I just want everybody to taste it,” Harry said. “I want everybody to see what’s going on.”
In the future, the pair plan to expand their offerings, adding another display case for the savory Mediterranean cuisine and rotating in different seasonal items — soups and French hot chocolate for when the weather turns colder, for instance.
For now, though, they want to ensure that the quality of what they’re serving is high and consistent. Harry notes that pastry chefs sometimes have a tendency to get caught up in making their creations aesthetically appealing, but he always prioritizes taste, arguing that that’s ultimately what brings customers back.
“For us, the table is a very holy place, and for them … to give us that honor of putting these products, these beautiful, delicious foods, on their table, we take that very seriously,” he said. “We don’t take it for granted at all. We want to make sure that people know that we really appreciate what they’re doing. There’s a lot of places they can go, but for them to choose us, it means a lot to us.”
Silva and Son is open from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. every day except for Sundays, when it’s closed.
Dining and Cooking