If you follow us on Instagram, you’ll know that we travel – a lot. And if there’s anything we love doing when we’re exploring a new city, it’s eating. We kid you not, for just about every big city our team has a shared working (read: ever-growing) list of hot spots to hit up that we’re all constantly adding to. From the best restaurants for brunch with a side of Mimosas, to the must-visit places for a slap up dinner, they’re all there. As you know, New York is our home from home so naturally that list is the longest and Brooklyn-based restaurant Glasserie is a firm fixture.
Being the aesthetic people we are, it’s the décor photos splashed over Instagram that caught our eyes at first because, seriously guys, Glasserie is the epitome of interiors porn. Housed in an old industrial glass factory, many of the original features remain, updated with sea-foam green walls, a rustic but modern open bar set in the middle set alongside potted plants, exposed red brick walls and framed catalogue prints from the factory’s heyday. There’s even an Instagram-ready cobblestone courtyard at the back used for private parties and a terrace transformed from the loading dock offering riverside views from day to night too.
‘I’m generally drawn to very old, authentic and decaying architecture so the sense of history of the space was very important to me,” owner Sara Conklin tells me as we sit in a cosy window corner at the far side of the restaurant’s dining room. “I was focused on opening in Bed-Stuy for six months of my venue search. It’s teeming with gorgeous, historically significant buildings that mesmerise me but a few locations didn’t pan out. When I got to a point of frustration,” she continues, “I started looking at Greenpoint and after seeing the courtyard outside Glasserie, everything just clicked.”
What makes Glasserie truly special though, is the food – a modern take on Mediterranean cuisine with a slant towards Middle East flavours inspired by Sara’s childhood in the places like Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. “I think I was an eater from a young age. I ate my way through the countries I lived in, including Switzerland, California, Cyprus and the UK, and always cared much more than other kids about the details of a dish. The travel allowed me to have a really broad culinary experience from an early age. Some kids play softball; I ate food in exotic places.”
She’s hands on with every dish on the menu but everything is created with her right hand man, Israel-born head chef, Eldad Shem Tov. “He is such a mellow guy, which is a rare chef trait that intrigued me right off the bat. But most importantly, his food blew others’ out the water and we spoke the same figurative language. When I referenced food memories and flavours from the Middle East, he was right there with me. I was also fascinated by his work experience, which is super impressive and broad. He is an artist; he is visual and technical, but he’s also rooted deeply in the soul of every dish too.”
Before setting up Glasserie she worked at Cipriani for 12 years as director of operations, involved in everything from events to special operations, opening places in Abu Dhabi and Los Angeles. It’s what inspired her to launch a space of her own. That, mixed with a desire to create something special in Brooklyn, where she’s lived for the past 15 years, and also a mission to introduce Middle Eastern flavours to New York, which, she tells me, felt very underrepresented in the foodie scene. “Growing up, I found great Lebanese restaurants in London and Southern California, even in Switzerland, so I was shocked that it was hard to find great spots in the Big Apple. I think things have changed now though,” she says. “I see ‘Labneh’ and ‘Za’atar’ on even Italian menus now! My grandmother would’ve been proud!”
With Glasserie, Sara shies away from the overdone and has made inventive, beautiful and simple Middle Eastern food available in New York for the first time. It’s the reason hordes of Brooklynites packed out the restaurant when its doors opened in 2013 and also why hordes of customers make the pilgrimage to the otherwise unremarkable road at the tip of Greenpoint beside the Pulsaki Bridge on a daily basis. Where we’re spoilt for choice with great restaurants in Brooklyn now, according to Sara that wasn’t always the case. “Good food was limited when I moved into the Gretch building in 2001,” she says. “The ‘eaters’ of Brooklyn would run in the same circle. It only had about four great restaurants then.
The menu has it all; from simple dishes like Herb Salad and Fava & Chickpea Stew to more elaborate plates like crispy rabbit tacos and soft carved lam with pine nuts and pomegranates. Then there’s the squid and eggplant interspersed with sweet bursts of cherry tomatoes or the grilled chicken in a milk of puréed almonds spiked with cinnamon and Yemeni hot sauce.
Away from all of the critical acclaim, running the restaurant hasn’t always been easy. “All the restaurateurs I consulted before opening Glasserie asked me the same question, “Are you absolutely sure you want to open a restaurant?” After 1520 times of hearing this, I became suspicious that they were all in cahoots. Turns out I now ask the same question to those in the marinating phase,” she confesses. “It is hard work, but many jobs are hard work. You have to be in love with the process because a restaurant needs constant nurturing. Success is measured daily. Having one week where all the factors align perfectly doesn’t mean it will be the same the following week, so it truly takes an entire team of dedication to perform to hit the marks. If one of the team members is off, another will need to step in to make up for the imbalance. This ebb and flow is constant and a daily challenge, but when it gels there is such a high. I wouldn’t change that for the world.”