During the first 3 weeks of March, Tel Aviv-based chef Itamar Lewensohn will serve up Iraqi-Jewish comfort food beside the cafes, yoga studios, and music venues of New York City’s East Village.
The After Hours Kubbeh Project, which will be housed at Zucker Bakery, is a pop-up restaurant that bills itself as a “modern attempt to preserve endangered foods.”
Kubbeh, a Mizrahi-style beef dumpling, will take center stage, channeling the hole-in-the-wall vibe of the Iraqi section of Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda market. In addition to kubbeh stew, the menu will feature other Iraqi-Israeli dishes, such as sabich, a pita sandwich filled with eggplant, salad and a hard-boiled egg, as well as baked goods from Zucker Bakery.
Every night, from March 1 – 21 the bakery will transform into a restaurant, and the project will even hold Shabbat dinners on Fridays. The doors open at 6 in the evening, and just like eateries of the Jerusalem market, the Iraqi fare (which, FYI, uses kosher meat, but does not have kosher supervision) will be served until the pots are scraped bare. If you’re planning to be in New York, you can drop by any night of the week or pre-purchase your tickets for Shabbat dinner when they send out the link on Facebook—and if you’re not, well, you may just go hungry.
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