This new Miami Beach restaurant will let you imagine you’re at a café in Tel Aviv
There is Mediterranean life beyond hummus and falafel — and a new South Beach café is ready to showcase it.
Omer Horev (founder of Pura Vida Miami) and Sam Gorenstein (My Ceviche) have just opened Abba Telavivian Kitchen in Miami Beach’s South of Fifth neighborhood.
The opening is a bit of a homecoming for the hospitality entrepreneurs.
“We feel like we’re coming full circle, opening a restaurant that reflects what we like to eat at home in a neighborhood that feels like home to both of us ,” said Horev, who left Israel for Miami 15 years ago and turned Pura Vida Miami into a lifestyle brand. “We welcome our neighbors to feel like Abba is their home as well.”
Gorenstein, who opened his first My Ceviche from a walk-up window at Washington Avenue and Second Street, grew up eating the Syrian dishes of his grandparents and is eager to share his favorites: “This is what I cook at home for my family and friends.”
The new cafe will seat around 50 diners inside and outside on a terrace. At the moment it’s serving breakfast and lunch only, but a dinner menu will be added in the future.
Abba prides itself on blending the flavors of the Middle East, North Africa, Syria, Europe and even Latin America. For breakfast, grab homemade pastries — za’atar-lemon croissants, tahini walnut banana bread, an Israeli puff pastry called a bureka with all sorts of fillings. If you’re hungrier, consider an egg dish like shakshuka (poached eggs, tomato pepper sauce, Aleppo pepper olive oil and herbs). Or pretend you’re in Tel Aviv and order the TLV Breakfast with arak citrus cured salmon, two eggs, labneh, cured olives, shuk salad, hummus, pickled onions and a toasted Jerusalem bagel. (Don’t let the shape fool you — they’re longer and skinnier than American bagels).
Expect the sorts of lunch items you’d find in a Tel Aviv café with the accent on fresh vegetables and many fish options. There are salads galore: Shuk salad with tomato, cucumber, onion, sumac and herbs; a classic Fattoush; an Israeli Kale “Caesar” with shredded kale and romaine lettuce, crumbled feta, pistachios, radish, crunchy pita and green tahini; and Sabich, which involves fire-roasted eggplant with shuk salad, hard-boiled egg, radish, sumac and tahini dressing.
You’ll also find falafel and lamb kofta-stuffed pitas and open face Jerusalem bagels with avocado, egg and feta cheese as well as hummus, arugula, tomato, and tahini.
Entrees include Sumac Chicken Shashlik, fire-roasted whole branzino and a pan-roasted catch of the day. The beer and wine list includes Israeli wine. A sunset menu after 4 p.m. includes a limited selection of snacks, plus beer and wine.
Abba Televivian Kitchen
Address: 864 Commerce St., Miami Beach
Hours: 8 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. Breakfast 8-11:30 a.m.; lunch 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m.; sunset hour 4-7 p.m. ; ww.abbatlv.com
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 1:42 PM.