The restaurant is meant to capture some version of this experience. “Now I’m too old,” she laughs, “I’ve mellowed down, but I used to - oh, mamina!” After dinner, the dancing could go on until 2 or 3 a.m. Every occasion was a party occasion: Valentine’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Fondue night. “I would be cooking for a week!” There would be drinks first, and then appetizers, and then Nabila would reveal the grand buffet, although she’d also do seated dinners, 50 or 60 people in the basement of the family home in McLean, Virginia, and sometimes barbecues. She would throw the big parties - 100 people or more - every few months. “At least once a month I would have a party for 30 or 40 people,” she recalls, and those were just the little parties. Lots of restaurants are designed to feel like dinner parties these days, but Nabila’s parties are the stuff of legend. “The whole vision behind this,” Farah says, “is to recreate the feeling of going to one of Nabila’s dinner parties.” The counter is stacked with trays of spinach pies so fat they look like dumplings and pots with simmering hot stews and, starring in the pastry case, a manhole-cover-size knafeh. The cuisine is Lebanese the guiding principle is abundance. The executive chef will be Nabila herself. When it opens, it will be a showcase for Farah’s mother’s cooking. Nabila’s is a casual restaurant on Court Street, scheduled to debut later this month. Which is why he decided to open a restaurant with his mom. “I would only do it if I had something to work with.”
TIME OUT BROOKLYN PROFESSIONAL
“I have too much respect for how competitive and professional it is in this industry in the city,” he says. Farah knew that he couldn’t just open something, especially in New York. But everybody loves restaurants, and almost everybody has fantasized about owning one. His father had owned restaurants when Farah was growing up in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, and he’d loved them ever since.
Nabila and Mike Farah at Nabila’s in Carroll Gardens.įive years ago, Mike Farah was a Wall Street guy with fantasies of starting a restaurant.
0 kommentar(er)
