A tiny new counter-service spot is set to bring Persian street food to Williamsburg this weekend, with chef Soroosh Golbabae scheduled to open Āzar at 740 Driggs Avenue on Saturday. The restaurant occupies just 350 square feet with room for only 10 seats, as reported by Eater NY, built around a menu of lavash wraps and grilled meats sized for quick, handheld eating rather than a sit-down feast.
According to ny.eater.com, Golbabae is opening Āzar at the corner of Driggs Avenue and South Second Street this Saturday, November 7. Āzar's own website echoes the timeline, posting the note opening saturday nov 7th! ahead of the launch, according to azar.nyc. The space previously housed Fan Fried Rice Bar, per greenpointers.com.
Golbabae trained at the Culinary Institute of America and cooked at Gramercy Tavern before joining the opening teams at Sofreh and Eyval, two Brooklyn restaurants already known for elevating Persian cooking in the borough. He also served as opening chef and chef de cuisine at Park Slope's Sawa, a Lebanese restaurant, a credential confirmed by the same Eater report. At Āzar, he's the chef and creator behind a menu built around what the restaurant calls loghmeh — a Persian word meaning bite or morsel — meant to deliver modern Persian cuisine in handheld portions.
A Menu Built Around Flatbread and Family
The restaurant makes its own flatbread in-house, inspired by lavash and taftoon, and serves it loaded with fillings the station's report described as not overly large portions, despite the hearty ingredients packed inside. Reported headliners include the koobideh, a $12 plate of grilled ground lamb and beef made with saffron butter, and a $12 ghormeh sabzi built from beef cheeks, kidney beans, herbs and black limes, as reported by Eater NY — the paper's version of the classic Iranian home-cooking staple. Other items on the menu include chicken fesenjoon with pomegranate-walnut sauce, lamb shank with kashk and mint oil, and beef tongue served with black lime and Persian pickled cucumber.
Vegetarian diners get kashk bademjoon, a slow-cooked eggplant dish finished with mint oil and crispy onions, alongside sides like zereshk tahchin, sumac fries and moosir labneh. To drink, Āzar offers doogh, a savory yogurt drink flavored with mint and rose, and a saffron sharbat made with basil seeds and lime. The restaurant is leaning on a counter-service model and a compact menu specifically to keep overhead and complexity low in its small footprint.
A Name Rooted in Tehran
Āzar was named for Golbabae's mother, whose cooking in Tehran first inspired his love for the kitchen. The restaurant's co-founder and managing partner, Fardad Zabetian, was born in Iran and separately founded and leads the language-tech company Kudo. The design comes from New York studio roudiani.harelson, led by Iranian designer Bahar Roudiani, who outfitted the space with a stainless steel counter, painted steel, warm lighting and illuminated amber glass blocks, along with Persian pop art and works by Iranian artists. Iranian house music is part of the atmosphere, rounding out a space built to feel distinctly Persian despite its small size.
Joining a Growing Brooklyn Scene
Āzar arrives as the latest entry in what Time Out described back in 2021 as Iranian food having a New York moment, when at least four new Iranian restaurants had opened across the city within a single year, according to timeout.com. Brooklyn Magazine likewise characterized the period as an Iranian restaurant boom in the city. Sofreh, where chef Nasim Alikhani opened in 2018 and quickly earned a James Beard nomination, remains one of the borough's most prominent Persian kitchens, according to bkmag.com. Eyval, where Golbabae also worked on the opening team, launched in 2022 under Ali Saboor, a former Sofreh chef, while Masquerade, an Iranian tapas bar in Williamsburg founded in 2021 by Pouya Esghai and Siavash Karampour, has built a following for a frequently changing menu of small plates and cocktails that were originally priced at $12 or under.
If Āzar opens as planned, it will add a fast-casual, grab-and-go option to a Brooklyn Persian dining landscape that has otherwise leaned toward full-service restaurants and tapas-style bars. The restaurant's reported hours are noon to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, as noted by Eater NY, serving a Williamsburg crowd already accustomed to seeking out the borough's expanding roster of Persian kitchens.
