Balaboosta—chef Einat Admony’s sleek Israeli restaurant that she co-owns with husband Stefan Nafziger—is officially back on the New York City dining scene map as of today, this time holding court in the West Village.
The original at 214 Mulberry Street closed earlier this spring; Admony cited a saturation of restaurants serving similar cuisine, as well as a rise in expenses for the closing.
But Admony proves that there’s no rest for the weary, making the swift decision to reopen inside of her Bar Bolonat space on 611 Hudston Street, a stone’s throw from her recently-opened Kish Kash. “We took two weeks off—we couldn’t take anymore,” she says. “We couldn’t keep it closed for much longer.”
Admony describes the new interior as “fresh and bright,” changing everything including the chairs, the light fixtures and even the plants. Diners should also take note of the large painted mural in the dining area—it’s of her mother on a Vespa in the 1960s. (Admony, too, sports a Vespa around the Big Apple.)
As for the food, Admony has done a menu overhaul, adding dishes like braised lamb neck with dates, a Yemenite soup dumpling and a weekly rotating cauliflower dish like fried cauliflower with currants and pine nuts (her personal favorite). Balaboosta fans have also requested she keep some of their favorites like the fried olives. A few of the dishes from Bar Bolonat will also be rotated in regularly.
“I feel like with all the Israeli food [available] now, I can show more than a lot of other people because I grew up with this food and the spices and the culture, so I want to go a step ahead,” she says.
“I’m a very optimistic person—I have no choice in this industry.”
