A Bed-Stuy pop-up’s journey to become a full-service restaurant is complete — Little Armenia Cafe hosted a grand opening last night.
Little Armenia Cafe (1035 Manhattan Ave.) started as a pandemic pop-up, unfolding on the sidewalk downstairs from chef and owner Ararat El-Rawi’s apartment building. Encouraged by the response, he found the Greenpoint space a few months ago and has been working to restore it to restaurant readiness (the cafe takes over the long-vacant space that most recently housed Greenpoint Diner).
El-Rawi has been sharing previews of the menu on Instagram. Familiar favorites like stuffed grape leaves, spinach pie, and baklava appear, alongside shrimp and crab ceviche and borag, or Armenian meat or cheese pie. He kicked things off with an Armenian Christmas celebration on January 6.
“As my mom would say, we’re such an old culture that a lot of this food, we were the first ones to make it, everybody else took it and changed it to their liking,” El-Rawi told Greenpointers of Armenian food in September.
Little Armenia Cafe will also offer a seven-course prix fixe special for lunch and dinner.