A Lebanese-Armenian Restaurant Find
While walking down East 21st Street, I have often passed a restaurant that caught my eye, and silently registered the name. This past week, I had the opportunity to patronize the establishment to celebrate a family birthday and try their dishes. The restaurant is Almayass, and the cuisine is Lebanese-Armenian.
The Alexandrian family, proprietors of Almayass, first opened a restaurant in Beirut in 1996, followed by others in the middle east.
Here in New York, you can enjoy the wonderful Almayass restaurant experience in the Flatiron district.
Upon entering, we found the warm welcome we received to be very refreshing, and we were quickly ushered into the beautiful dining room with stunning art and glass work all around.
I didn’t realize until after we had our dinner, though, that there is a bar tucked away in another room.
I highly recommend visiting it because it is private and very attractive.
The food at Almayass is made from high quality ingredients. To start, you can enjoy several varieties of hummus, including the savory spread prepared with red pepper paste, pine nuts, meat, cauliflower or lamb.
Delicious eggplant , lamb and lentil dishes dominate the menu, but there are also plenty of chicken, fish and vegetarian options.
Several choices of tastings are available during lunch and dinner.
The Lebanese wine we chose was exceptional – Chateau Ksara 2012.
We completed our meal with a delicious dessert, capping off a truly satisfying dining experience .
Valerie Smaldone is a 5-time Billboard Magazine Award winner and is well known for her unprecedented success holding the #1 on-air position in the New York radio market on 106.7 Life-FM, an iHeart station. She has hosted, produced, and created several award-winning nationally syndicated programs featuring in-depth interviews with stars like Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Elton John and Mariah Carey among others. Her radio talk show "Bagels and Broadway" highlighted theatre and food personalities. She is an accomplished interviewer and voice artist heard on commercials, narrations, promos and audiobooks, as well as a sought after live announcer.
Most recently, Valerie produced and directed a film, The Thursday Night Club, featuring pop diva Gloria Gaynor in her movie acting debut. She is one of the creators and producers of a docu-series, Divine Renovation, starring Erik Estrada, on streaming networks soon.
