Zooba Flips to Full-Service in Nolita; Provides Ramy Youssef As Investor

Zooba opened in Nolita again in 2019 — the primary U.S. location of the Cairo-based fast-casual restaurant with spins on Egyptian road meals. This month, the Kenmare Road enterprise has flipped to change into full-service and overhauled its menu — with the assistance of a brand new investor, superstar comic Ramy Youssef, identified for his Hulu collection Ramy, and extra not too long ago, his function in Poor Issues.

“Is Zooba’s koshary higher than the one my mother makes? I can’t publicly remark presently for worry of what my mom would do to me,” Youssef stated by a spokesperson.

It’s Youssef’s first foray into restaurant investments. The Egyptian American actor turned a fan of Zooba by being a buyer, having even visited throughout journeys to Egypt. Later, he used the New York Zooba as a set location for his present. (Youssef won’t be concerned within the day-to-day of the enterprise.)

When Zooba first landed in decrease Manhattan, it was the primary U.S. location for founder Chris Khalifa’s Cairo-based Egyptian road meals chain. On the time, Eater reported the founder had raised $4 million, with plans to increase Zooba throughout America.

“When the road meals craze kicked off, folks have been doing such fascinating issues with their respective meals tradition,” Khalifa instructed Eater on the time. “However nobody was doing that with Egyptian meals. There was a really clear hole.”

In actual fact, Zooba had all the trimmings of what it takes to be the subsequent huge factor in fast-casual spots in New York: Dishes have been reasonably priced, quick-service (served on trays and to-go in newspaper-style wrapping), and, most significantly, tasty.

The house’s inside design was in contrast to any fast-casual the town had seen, with colourful wallpaper collages and LED mild shows that made it look virtually like a futuristic membership — distinct from Egyptian eating places that dot neighborhoods like Astoria or Jersey Metropolis that home Egyptian enclaves.

Zooba

Eater’s then-critic Ryan Sutton referred to as the enterprise “NYC’s subsequent must-try fast-casual,” calling out snacks like hawawshi, a minced meat sandwich. Simply months into its opening, it made Bon Appetit’s NYC100 rankings.

But, the restaurant, on a main nook, simply down the road from a Sweetgreen, by no means grew to a number of areas in New York — stagnating from opening simply earlier than the pandemic.

Now, 100 Kenmare Road is making a daring transfer: transitioning Zooba to a full-service restaurant, with reservations already bookable on Resy (the takeout counter will stay on the entrance).

“For us, it was by no means actually being a fast-casual restaurant — it was about advocating for Egypt’s recognition, and after we got here to New York we thought that was the proper car,” says Khalifa. “Eating habits and workplace habits modified, issues have been going effectively,” however it made them rethink issues.

Moustafa Elrefaey oversees the kitchen, a chef and co-founder who has been with Zooba since 2012. Ta’ameya (Egyptian falafel), alongside different staples, will stay, however a newly unveiled, intensive menu locations emphasis on “home-cooked dishes which have, over time, change into a cornerstone of Egypt’s culinary heritage”: like a chopped mallow leaf and rooster stew; braised lamb shank with beets, onions, peppers, and mint leaves; branzino; and orange rosemary duck. The baladi bread, which is used for dishes just like the hawawshi burger ($17), are made in-house. Mains on the brand new menu are priced between $18 to $40. Moreover, that is the one location with an inventory of wines and beer (highlighting Center Japanese brewers like Again House Beer primarily based right here in New York). There are additionally zero-proof choices like a hibiscus rose soda. General, it’s an bold enterprise.

Zooba

The crew spent the higher a part of a 12 months updating the eating space so it’s extra inviting: including arabesque wooden carvings, transforming the structure, and different design particulars.

It’s an identical line of considering different fast-casual operators have grappled with. Dig, aka Dig Inn, had its well-reviewed 232 Bleecker restaurant (however it has since shuttered), and Inday added a sit-down offshoot in Williamsburg (it’s making different adjustments to place itself past lunch bowls, with a pastry program at its new Soho outpost).

Overseas, Zooba continues to develop: There are 14 Zooba areas, 9 in Cairo, together with inside what’s thought-about to be the world’s largest museum, the Grand Egyptian Museum; 4 in Saudi Arabia, plus openings in Kuwait and Bahrain this 12 months.

Zooba’s mission stays, initially, to create an Egyptian menu “with out desirous to water it down,” says Khalifa.