When you come across Taboonia off 6th ave just inside Nomad, it looks like just another random fast food joint, a pizzeria even. But its so much more than that. Not only it’s NYC’s second Druze restaurant (first fast casual), but it comes with a tragic underlying story. Raif Rashed, one of the owners was a survivor of the Nova Festival on Oct 7. While he lived in the US, he happened to be in Israel at the time, and agreed to help his brother operate a food stall called Taboonia at the festival. I will spare you the many tragic details except that they both survived.
Opening Taboonia, and introducing Americans to traditional Druze cooking is part of the healing process. When I used to run food tours, one of the stops on the Hell’s Kitchen tour was Gazala Place, our first Druze establishment. I enjoyed talking about the Druze, their believes and the famous Druze hospitality. The same hospitality we experienced in 2012 in Usfiya where Rashed is from. Gazala came from Daliyat El-Carmel, the sister Druze village right next to Usfiya, just outside of Haifa. The tray below is how we got treated at the Druze house.
Taboonia has some things in common, but very different than Gazala which eventually opened a place at the Upper West Side, and closed the original in Hell’s Kitchen during the pandemic. I have vivid memories of walking on 9th ave, seeing Gazala through the window cook that paper thin bread on a Saj oven. I miss her Hummus the most, and that bread was perfect for that.
Taboonia is a lot more low key, but same big heart. You are immediately greeted with some of the best spiced Chai you’ll ever have. I just asked him for the “best of” and the result was glorious. Manakish, essentially Druze pizza with Za’atar, similar to what we had in Usfiya. “Pita Labneh” featuring that thin flat Druze Saj bread stuffed with Tabule, egg, Labneh, and Harissa finished on the Saj oven. I recommend cutting by two instead of three like we did. Outstanding! Even the Potato Bourekas was fresh and excellent.
It’s one of those places where it may not even occur to you that its all vegetarian. All freshly made and solid ingredients throughout. Even the olives were delicious to this olives hater. The location is fine, depending on who you ask. Its fairly central, but the immediate area is mainly of the wholesale variety, though the area is changing. Go!
Taboonia
832 6th Ave, (29th)
Recommended Dishes: Pita Labneh, Bourekas, Manakish
Eating With Ziggy 