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New York Times

Can a Restaurant Be Both Glamorous and Comforting? Cafe Zaffri Is.

There's an old term in Hollywood: a 'four-quadrant movie.' It describes a film that appeals to every demographic — men and women, young and old. A blockbuster like 'Finding Nemo,' 'Jurassic Park' or 'Wicked.' Allow me to introduce you to the four-quadrant restaurant. This is the place where you can take your parents, and where you can also host your birthday dinner. Where you can have a power lunch. Where you can take a picky eater. Where you can find a flaky croissant and a well-prepared steak. That restaurant is Cafe Zaffri, a majestic, marble-tiled home for Levantine cuisine that opened in February near Union Square. I have tested the restaurant — a soaring space with two dining rooms, one open and sun-soaked, the other dark and moody — with differing audiences, at various mealtimes. My friends and I have basked in the ivory atrium over crisp cigars of halloumi-esque jibneh dusted with so much lemon zest they taste like sunshine. When some British comrades complained to me that American restaurant food was too sweet, they experienced a change of heart over a simple lunch of skewers: silken ribbons of cabbage and pine nuts, slippery hunks of striped bass flickered with tart black lime powder, and grilled pork belly smeared with sticky date molasses. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.