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If your December plans didn’t already include flaky pastry and casual luxury, consider this your sign.
On Saturday, December 21, Buba Bureka, the tiny Greenwich Village shop that turned a beloved Mediterranean staple into a full-blown New York obsession, is giving out free bumps of caviar to anyone who buys a bureka. The giveaway starts at 10am and runs until the staff sells out, which, if history is any guide, will not take long.
The caviar in question comes courtesy of Pearl Street Caviar and it will be exactly what it sounds like: a literal bump, served alongside one of Buba’s golden, crispy burekas. No upcharge and no tasting menu theatrics: just pastry, caviar and the thrill of getting something fancy for free.
Buba, located at 193 Bleecker Street, is the first shop in New York City dedicated entirely to the bureka, a flaky pastry beloved across the Mediterranean and Middle East. Chef Ben Siman-Tov took the traditionally palm-sized snack and supersized it into a shareable, pizza-slice-style wedge that comes boxed, sauced and Instagram-ready.
The menu is famously tight, but that hasn’t stopped the eatery from becoming one of downtown’s most reliably sold-out counters. Current options include a classic cheese bureka, a spinach-artichoke version that nods to dip-night nostalgia and a deeply savory French onion bureka served with cacio e pepe dip and garlic confit. (On weekends, there’s even an everything bagel bureka, topped with pastrami lox and caper berries.) Each bureka comes with tahini, pickles and a perfectly hard-boiled egg, creating a snack-meal that combines street food energy with a chef’s touch.
The free caviar bump feels like a victory lap for a shop that’s already gone viral multiple times over, including recent buzz around its kimchi melt bureka collab. It’s festive, slightly absurd and very New York.