Super popular Persian restaurant Sofreh just opened a bakery

Back in 2021, Sofreh Cafe opened in Bushwick to much fanfare. Given the success of Sofreh, the Persian restaurant that kick-started an years-long revamping of the cuisine within New York's restaurant culture, critics and locals were pretty surprised to learn about the shuttering of the cafe just a few months after its debut.

Fast-forward a few years and the latest iteration of Sofreh Cafe has just opened at 216 Flatbush Avenue by Bergen Street, right across the street from its parent eatery, Sofreh. 

This time around, Sofreh Cafe is the brainchild of Nasim Alikhani alone, the owner of Sofreh. Back in 2021, when the first concept debuted, Alikhani collaborated with Ali Saboor, the owner of another Persian restaurant, Eyval, now still operating (and very much popular) in Bushwick.

According to Eater, "running both the Bushwick restaurant and bakery proved to be too much for him and Saboor isn't involved with the new [destination]." 

At the new Sofreh Cafe, all the treats served—from sweet to savory and everything in-between—are Alikhani's own recipes, executed with the help of Shuna Lydon, the former pastry chef at Peels, the "cool-kids diner" on the Bowery that closed in 2014. 

Soft-open since mid-March, the bakery is now in operation from Tuesdays to Fridays at 9am to 4pm and from 9am to 5pm on the weekends. 

The treats on offer are the epitome of Persian desserts, boasting the sort of aromatic flavors and non-Western ingredient combinations that New York palates don't often get to revel in. It's about more than saffron at Sofreh Cafe: pirashki khamei, rose custard doughnuts, are served fresh every Saturday and Sunday at noon, for example.

There are also cardamom cakes, cookie sandwiches filled with pistachio and rose cream (latifeh) and satisfying meringues that share display space with the herb frittate that Iranians enjoy for both breakfast and lunch (kuku sabzi) and more. 

According to Eater, "an expanded menu for breakfast and lunch will follow."

Although Iranian restaurants have been operating in NYC and the suburbs around it for decades, the folks at Sofreh and Eyval have been able to expand the cuisine's fanbase, introducing the unique culinary genre to a younger and vastly more diverse set of diners. In a way, they've Brooklyn-ized Persian food—and it sounds like sweet treats are the next frontier.