(New York Jewish Week) — Israeli celebrity chef Eyal Shani is expanding his footprint in New York again — this time with an outpost of his trendy Tel Aviv restaurant, Port Sa’id. A Manhattan version of the music-focused eatery is set to open at 350 Hudson St. on Wednesday.
Port Sa’id joins Shani’s other five restaurants in New York, which include Miznon, HaSalon and Shmoné, which received a Michelin nod earlier this year.
In Israel, Port Sa’id is known as “possibly the coolest spot in Tel Aviv,” according to Time Out Israel. The open-air eatery, with a menu that changes daily, is located in a courtyard next to Tel Aviv’s Great Synagogue, though “you won’t find anyone praying here,” according to the magazine. Instead, the restaurant boasts a massive vinyl record collection and a rotating cast of DJs.
The Manhattan version of the restaurant will be a 4,000-square-foot space in Hudson Square, a neighborhood at the confluence of Tribeca, Soho and the West Village. Per a press release, “there will be a large central dining area, a dedicated bar and listening station.”
Just as at Shani’s other spots, the restaurant will take on more of a party atmosphere as the night goes on. Though Manhattan’s Port Sa’id will be indoors, like its Tel Aviv counterpart it will have an emphasis on interesting and curated music. A “separate retail space” will be curated by In Sheep’s Clothing, a Los Angeles-based vinyl record store and sound collective.
The 4,000 square foot restaurant is located in Hudson Square. (Max Flatow)
“The idea is for Port Sa’id to be the kind of place you can spend time late into the night,” restaurant designer Dror Sher said in a press release. He also indicated that the Port Sa’id was aiming to have an outdoor space in Manhattan in the coming months.
As for the menu, Port Sa’id will reflect Shani’s penchant for fresh fish, meat and vegetables, as well as wine, beer, spirits and cocktails. “There will be a focus on medium-sized dishes entirely meant for sharing. Lots of vegetables, the freshest ingredients much like Shani loves to showcase wherever he goes,” Zack Bar, a co-founder of Teder and Port Sa’id in Tel Aviv, said. “Port Sa’id will be more than merely a restaurant, but a place where folks can eat good food, listen to good music and enjoy a truly memorable vibe.”
Shani opened his first restaurant in 1989 in Jerusalem, though he didn’t establish his restaurant empire until 2008, when he and his partner opened HaSalon in Tel Aviv. After opening a Miznon outpost in Chelsea Market in 2018 — his first restaurant in New York — Shani told the New York Jewish Week he was “seduced by the city’s exciting, vast and diverse food scene,” calling it “the essence of American culture.”
He also said the city challenged him to exceed New Yorkers’ culinary expectations. “When they are putting walls around me it’s seducing me, it’s seducing me to break them,” he told the New York Jewish Week. “It’s my nature.”
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