WE LOCALLY DISCOVER CULTURES TO LOVE.
We are a social good platform for the hospitality industry, which allows influencers like chefs and founders of food and beverage establishments to serve as conduits for overcoming culture barriers within their communities by sharing their stories and hosting monthly culture talks which foodies can subscribe to on our platform.
Translated literally, the word mezze (meh-ZEH) means a taste or a bite. It is used to describe small plates of savory snacks that are served as a compliment to drinks — it’s a dining culture. The menu will vary according to locale. Likewise, at restaurants the mezze table is a traditional gathering place that is warm, inviting, and always casual. It is an atmosphere where the plates are communal, the conversation is spirited, and the pace is leisurely. This style of entertaining encourages people to come and join the party — and experience the culture. Join us!
Our community
Our partners in hospitality become culture hosts who tell their story through food to inspire wanderlust among foodies. We also enable chefs and founders to be change makers by making their stories known and a force for good in their communities just by hosting recurring culture talks while generating monthly subscription revenue from foodie fans who subscribe to their establishments on our platform.
Our community of foodies subscribe to these culture talks to get beyond traditional media resources about countries and cultures like reading and research, and they get to learn firsthand through our local hospitality partners who create immersive cultural experiences beyond just dining through their culture talks.
Our Mission
Our mission is to enable greater knowledge, respect, empathy, and love beyond borders. By knowing more, we can start to overcome travel barriers, span cultural distances and bridge cultural divides, just by stepping into our backyards.
We are dedicated to making cultures more visible in America, starting in New York City, Austin, Washington DC, and Tampa Bay.
By experiencing the lifestyle typically found abroad through local hospitality in our backyards, and connecting with local businesses to cultivate cultural discovery, we can inspire the half of American who have never traveled abroad to do it, and those who have to do more of it by breaking down travel barriers.
We believe that while travel opens the eyes, without a sense of empathy its effects cannot reach the heart.
In the famous words of Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.” When we start to look at experiences beyond their value to us, and see travel beyond its traditional borders, the adventure truly begins.
Fatin Kwasny, Founder
Fatin Kwasny, a first-generation American, launched Mezze Culture in 2015 as a way for fellow Americans get to know the world firsthand through the origins of the international people and places around them—not just through traditional mediums about countries. Always finding international inspiration in her backyard, she ultimately invested time into traveling to 13 countries over a 5 year period while still working full-time. She started Mezze Culture because while there are about 200 nations, our world has over 6,000 cultures which are able to transcend traditional borders for people to connect.