WORDS BY IMAN SULTAN
EDITED BY NATALIA GEVARA
Cafés and restaurants have always been touchstones of community, places to gather, making memories and forging close bonds all while enjoying a delicious meal or sipping from a cup of strong coffee. New York City remains one of the food capitals of the world, a melting pot of different cultures and their cuisines, resulting in restaurants and cafés becoming points of connection and learning for the millions of people who live in the city.
In Back Matter’s guide on the best cafés and eateries in the city, find where to dine, hang out, and drink killer coffee in the boroughs. Whether you’re sipping strong Yemeni coffee in Queens, eating brunch in the Upper East Side, enjoying Sylvia’s famous home-fried chicken in Harlem, or tasting enfrijoladas in the Bronx, New York remains unique in bringing communities together for the joy of tasting delectable food. Without further ado, here is Back Matter’s complete guide to eating around New York City.
1. Lava Shawarma
57 Clinton Street, East Village | 12 West 23rd Street, Flatiron | 226 Thompson Street, Soho | 1640 Third Avenue, Upper East Side
This Palestinian-owned shawarma joint centers the staple street food of the entire Arabic-speaking world in a cafeteria-like restaurant setup. The chicken shawarma is drizzled with tangy garlic sauce, wrapped tightly in flatbread made in-house and grilled before serving, and is affordably priced at thirteen dollars. The restaurant also offers lamb and beef chop platters, a mouthwatering Wagyu beef burger, crispy falafel, and freshly-baked pita bread with eggplant-based baba ghannouj or hummus (which comes in beet, avocado, and chickpea flavors). Lava’s food has a homemade touch, nurturing the soul.
2. Sylvia’s Restaurant
328 Malcolm X Boulevard, Harlem
This iconic restaurant has served the neighborhood and tourists alike for decades since its founding in 1962 by Sylvia Woods, a trailblazing restauranteur who came from a family of farmers in rural South Carolina before moving to New York. With a royal purple storefront emblazoned with “Sylvia’s, the Queen of Soul Food”, the restaurant lives up to its name, serving candied yams, grits, baked macaroni and cheese, rotisserie chicken, oxtails, catfish, and shrimp—grilled or fried—and much more. Still owned by the Woods family, Sylvia’s remains rare for its balance of heritage and authenticity. The restaurant also hosts a Sunday supper pantry and local events like live music, book launches, and community gatherings.
3. La Morada
308 Willis Avenue, Bronx
La Morada has typical Mexican fare like enfrijoladas, chips and pico de gallo, crispy flautas, and bigger dishes such as shrimp grilled in garlic sauce and mole poblano. The Oaxacan restaurant is run by Natalia Mendez and her daughter, Yajaira Saavedra, a proud family of immigrants and activists who use the restaurant as a space for the community, whether in supporting each other by translating documents or using food as a way to bond in the Bronx. “At La Morada, we serve Indigenous food. So just by continuing our traditions, that’s a form of resistance,” Saavedra told Eater.
4. Qahwah House
162 Bedford Avenue, Williamsburg | 13th Carmine Street, West Village | 2237 31st Street, Astoria | 2869 Broadway, Upper West Side
Offering Yemeni-style chai, coffee, and treats, Qahwah House started in Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a 55 percent population of Arab-Americans, before gradually opening locations all over New York City, ranging from the Upper West Side to Astoria. Founded by Ibrahim Alhasbani, who comes from eight generations of coffee farmers in Yemen, Qahwah House is a social hub, a trusty work station for students and professionals, and a subculture all at once, given its walking distance to the NYU mosque and attraction to Muslim diasporas. With its late-night hours, the café offers patrons a safe space to hang out and meet new people. Using beans sourced directly from Yemen, coffee is available to drink in medium roasts mixed with cardamom and/or ginger. And yet, the showstopper is truly the Adeni chai, a black tea stewed over a hot flame with milk and sugar, sweet and strong with an aromatic jolt that overwhelms the senses. Order the chai with the Khaliat Alnahl, a soft cheese-filled pastry drizzled with honey, as you mingle with friends or finish that last-minute assignment.
5. Frame
1413 Second Avenue, Upper East Side
This hole-in-the-wall café on Seventy-fourth Street on the Upper East Side often gets crowded, and it’s easy to see why. With a selection of whimsical brunch dishes like eggs benedict with truffle hollandaise and a wall lined with rows of gleaming film cameras, chilling at Frame is as satisfying with a good book as it is with a close friend. The music selection ranges from nostalgic pop songs to classical music, allowing visitors to tap into their creativity. Laptop use is forbidden on the weekends, allowing patrons to talk to each other and enjoy their lives offline.
6. Barzakh
147 Utica Avenue, Crown Heights
El Atigh Abba, who was once a photographer of the Arab Spring in Morocco, founded Barzakh as “a home in exile,” named after the liminal space in Islamic scripture where the soul hangs between death and the afterlife. A cross between a bar, a bookstore, an ambient nightclub, and a café, Barzakh regularly hosts live music events featuring artists from Southwest Asia, enticing patrons to dance at night when the café is at its liveliest. Bask in the red haze of the café and sip their strong mint tea as you find yourself transported to another world.
7. Cholita
866 Onderdonk Avenue, Ridgewood
This minimalistic coffee shop serves drinks from beans sourced in Ecuador, Peru, and Puerto Rico, giving the lattes a strong, aromatic flavor that lingers on the tongue long after the cup is empty. Founded by brother-and-sister duo Bryan and Suzette Siranaula, native New Yorkers who originally hail from Ecuador, Cholita is a passion project borne out of the owners’ love for coffee and sense of service toward the Ecuadorian community in the neighborhood. Try the double espresso Cocada with a hint of coconut, or the hedonistically sweet Raíces latte with whole cane sugar, cinnamon, and star anise.
8. Casa Adela
66 Losaida Avenue, Lower East Side
Casa Adela is that rare success story: a family-owned restaurant persisting through the gentrification of New York, and that has more recently won a battle against drastic rent hikes thanks to the community rallying around in support. Serving the neighborhood since 1973, Casa Adela is famous for its rotisserie chicken, roasted pork, beef stew, and fried plantains. A center for the Puerto Rican diaspora and a cultural fixture in the area, the experience of eating at this local institution is not to be missed.
9. Kaafi
171 Lenox Avenue, Harlem
A quaint café on Lenox Avenue (also known as Malcolm X Boulevard), Kaafi serves chai and traditional South Asian fare like samosas and rice pudding in this ultramodern twist on the coffee shop. Fusion dishes like a doughnut inspired by gulab jaamun, a syrupy rose-scented dessert, and ‘chaat,’ a chickpea medley with samosa and American-style coleslaw abound. The friendly staff and comfort of sitting at Kaafi for hours on end make it a place to visit again and again, chatting with friends about books and cinema, listening to Coke Studio ballads, and fantasizing about life.
10. Spot Dessert Bar
13th Street Marks Place, East Village
A restaurant that excels solely in dessert is truly a lost art form, which makes Spot Dessert Bar’s tapas-style sweets so vital in a disappearing market. Ace Watanasuparp and Chatchai Huadwattana, cousins and co-founders of the eatery, conceptualized their venture as a space to hang out after eating a meal. Spot Dessert Bar mills from East Asian flavors to create unforgettable desserts, such as a chocolate lava cake with matcha ganache and dark green ice cream, a cream-filled choux pastry with vanilla ice cream and cornflakes, and a layered cheesecake disguised as a flower pot sprinkled with Oreo crumbs. Open until 1 A.M. on weekends, the dishes at Spot Dessert Bar tantalize not just the taste buds but the imagination, leaving you eager to return for more
Iman Sultan is a freelance journalist based in New York City and a graduate student at The New School. When she isn’t writing, she’s analyzing astrology and curating her closet with stylish clothing.
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