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A new Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn confidently opens in a NYC transformed by Oct. 7
(New York Jewish Week) — At first glance, it may not seem like the wisest or safest decision to open an Israeli restaurant in a New York City that’s been thrown into turmoil since the Israel-Hamas war began.
Yet Nina, a 162-seat Mediterranean restaurant helmed by Israeli chef Sagi Azrouel, opened on Nov. 30 in Dumbo, just blocks from the iconic Brooklyn intersection where tourists flock to snap pictures of the Manhattan Bridge against the city’s skyline.
Despite a rash of antisemitic incidents targeting Israeli restaurants in the city, business at Nina has been good, Azrouel insists. That’s especially true on weekends, when the chef, 31, said the line stretches out the door with patrons waiting to enjoy a dinner accompanied by a DJ and a party atmosphere. During Hanukkah, a menorah was prominently displayed inside next to a Christmas tree, and the restaurant served sfinge, Moroccan fried yeast donuts made from Azrouel’s grandmother’s recipe.
Azrouel and Anna Castellani, a partner in the restaurant, say they are unconcerned about Nina experiencing wrath from anti-Israel protesters. “Not at all,” Azrouel told the New York Jewish Week. “I feel sad for the people who are trying to ruin someone else’s business because of their political agendas.”
He said he thought protesters who have targeted Israeli restaurants do not understand Israeli food.
“When I see those people, the way they behave, I see it comes from missing knowledge,” he added. “They don’t know enough, they’re not educated enough. When we say ‘Israeli food,’ for me, Israeli food is built out of hundreds of different cuisines — that doesn’t mean it’s Jewish food. It means Israel is built out of hundreds of different cultures.”
Azrouel noted that Israeli families can have roots in dozens of countries around the world, and how the food found in Israel can be Arabic, Eastern European, American or even Palestinian in origin. “Israel is the one place in the world where you can find every kind of food,” he said.
Chef Sagi Azrouel came to NYC in 2013, directly after his army service in Israel ended. (Delaine Dacko for In Haus)
At Nina — named for Castellani’s eldest daughter — these cross-cultural influences are found across the menu. Among the starters, for example, is a selection of dips that include a Moroccan matbucha made of tomatoes, pepper and garlic ($18), as well as an albacore tuna ceviche ($17) and french fries with chimichurri sauce ($12). Main dishes include a vegetarian schnitzel made with eggplant ($20) and fettuccini with kebob-style meatballs ($24). Unlike most Israeli and Middle Eastern restaurants, Nina doesn’t serve pita bread as an accompaniment — rather, there is vegan challah, made at the restaurant without eggs.
“I did not try to create fine dining — I just wanted to create good quality food where everyone feels at home,” Azrouel said.
The preparations to open Nina began in May 2023, well before the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7. “No one foresaw the drama unfolding,” said Castellani, who is also the force behind nearby DeKalb Market Hall, which has some 40 food vendors including a Brooklyn offshoot of Katz’s Deli. “I’m not Israeli, I’m not Jewish, I come at this purely from a culinary point of view.”
A lifelong New Yorker, Castellani’s aim for the 3,200-square-foot space, previously a gourmet grocery, was to create a local staple for Dumbo residents like herself. “We have a burgeoning, very young population,” she said of the neighborhood, explaining the increased need for restaurants. “In fact, we are underserved.”
Castellani said she was considering opening an American restaurant, or possibly a bistro, but had difficulty finding the right chef. As providence would have it, Castellani and her business partner Moshe Ziv happened to drop into 260s New York, a Garment District coffee shop that Azrouel opened last spring. Ziv knew Azrouel through a mutual friend — “he’s like a second father to me,” Azrouel said — and, as the trio talked, Castellani started to think that maybe he’d be a good fit for the new restaurant. When she asked if he thought he could handle the kitchen, he assured her could, compiled a sample menu and tasting, and was quickly hired.
Castellani was convinced Azrouel was “the right spirit fit,” despite his lack of formal training.
“It’s my confidence,” Azrouel quipped.
Azrouel, whose family hails from Morocco, grew up in the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod. Three days after he completed his army service in 2013, he decamped for New York City. “I came with $400, but huge faith,” he said. “And I never stopped believing, even during dark days, and I’m sure whoever lived in New York experienced that. I think New York is the city for creatives and believers, as long as you believe in yourself, you can make it.”
It doesn’t hurt to have a high-end fashion designer as your uncle. Upon his arrival in the city, Sagi Azrouel started as the chief of operations for Yigal Azrouël’s fashion line, handling production, studio operations, finances and procurement. Fashion is in the family blood — Azrouel said his father’s family had owned a large textile business back in Morocco. And in early 2023, Azrouel opened his own apparel manufacturing company on West 39th Street, Lab 26, which provides fashion development and production services.
At the same time, Azrouel loved to host parties and also occasionally worked as a private chef, eventually opening 260s New York on the same block as his apparel business last spring. The Garment District, he said, lacked “something a bit more stylish and cozy where people can step in and disconnect from the craziness of the city for a few minutes.”
Azrouel said he was always interested in cooking; growing up he loved to help his mother chop vegetables. He became a dishwasher at a restaurant in Ashdod at 13, and started assisting the chef whenever he had an opportunity. According to Azrouel, the chef eventually asked him to officially join the team and by 18, he said, he was running the kitchen.
With the opening of Nina, Azrouel realized a lifelong dream. “If you ask my mom, I’ve always said that I’ll have my own restaurant, since a very young age.”
Nina is kosher-style: It does not serve dishes mixing dairy and meat, nor does it serve the meat of non-kosher animals, such as pork or shellfish, but it does not have kosher certification and serves meat from kosher animals that was not slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law. That means Azrouel, who himself observes the laws of kashrut, does not taste the meat at the restaurant. He claims he can judge the quality and doneness of those dishes by looking and smelling.
Though Azrouel is proud of his Israeli identity, he and Castellani are marketing Nina as a Mediterranean — and not necessarily Israeli — restaurant. “Sagi’s Israeli, but he has a very unique take and you really can’t call the menu classic Israeli,” Castellani said.
“Some restaurants are afraid of the protesting and you don’t want to get into a situation where people get violent and use their hands,” Azrouel said. “But at the same time, it’s our part to stay strong and be proud. If there’s any place in the world we can be proud as Jews it’s New York.”
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The post A new Israeli restaurant in Brooklyn confidently opens in a NYC transformed by Oct. 7 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
The post Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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