Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Food

Shoo Shoo Is The Latest Middle Eastern Restaurant To Open In New York

Nur, Dez, NishNush, Miss Ada, Timna, Shuka…. The more Middle-Eastern joints seem to open, the more New Yorkers seem to flock to them.

And the latest to hang up a Mediterranean-flavored shingle is Shoo Shoo, which started serving its spin on staples like falafel, hummus, sabich, and shakshuka last week.

A few things distinguish this Nolita newcomer. Its owners include a trio of Israeli machers, including former 12 Chairs owner Shimon Maman, Sabon soap mogul Sharon Hassan, and Albert Bitton, a co-founder of the CLEAN cleanse program. Meir Guri, who’s designed Tel Aviv eateries like Cafeteria at the Gindi Fashion Mall, decorated Shoo Shoo in Mediterranean-evoking blues, light tiles, and natural wood, with a marble bar and plush velvet banquettes for contrast.

Shoo Shoo’s cuisine draws on family recipes, Maman told the Forward. “The whole menu’s inspired by my childhood in Israel and my Moroccan roots,” Maman told the Forward. “One of the dishes I enjoyed growing up is the branzino fish stew – the flavors of tomato and freh fish brings me back to my grandmother’s kitchen, and I wanted to share that experience.”

Falafel and sabich are “traditional”, he said, while Shoo Shoo’s schnitzel will use a chicken thigh, rather than the usual breast, to keep the dish moist. The restaurant’s making its own tahini, hummus, and spice blends in-house.

While Shoo Shoo’s riding a trend, Maman doesn’t see Mediterranean-food fatigue setting in anytime soon. “This kind of food is made with a lot of healthy ingredients. Lemon, olive oil, fresh spices, vegetables, and fish are all part of a well-rounded and healthy diet,” he said. “Ingredients like tomatoes, when given the opportunity to shine, are really spectacular, and the simplicity of something like our chopped dalad with cucumber, tomato, radish, and bulgar is really appealing to a wide audience in NYC and beyond.”

On the more indulgent side, Shoo Shoo features cocktails with regional accents – think flavors like arak and pomegranate juice – and a wine list with Israeli options like an Adir Kerem Ben Zimra shiraz from Galilee.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.