Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/986636
An Intriguing Mix of Foods Basu Ratnam, owner of fast-casual Indian- inspired restaurant Inday, says he believes the high quality of the restaurants in the space will be a big draw throughout the day, not just from local office workers seeking a quick lunch. Inday offers a build-your-own bowl menu at its two other Manhattan spots, but is testing a new menu at the Urbanspace food hall, where it adopted the name Inday Go Go. The location features Go Go Roti, which are wraps that use house-baked bread made from chia seeds, flax seeds, and coconut. "For this location, we wanted to do something a little more mobile and fun," says Ratnam. Little Collins, the cafe concept that has the exclusive coffee contract for the food hall, also is testing a new menu item at its Urbanspace at 570 Lex location, which is just inside the main entrance. The outlet is the chain's third in Manhattan, and its first to offer affogati—ice cream with an espresso pour-over—for which it is partner- ing with local gourmet ice cream purveyor, Il Laboratorio del Gelato. "We've gone in a different direction here," says Leon Unglik, one of the owners of Little Collins. The company is known for its avocado toasts—dubbed "The Smash" on its menus—and so created an avocado gelato as a fun play on that highly popular menu item, he says. The rest of the menu is what Unglik described as a "highlights package" of the brand's best-selling snacks, sandwiches, and salads. Similarly, Taïm, the falafel restaurant owned by Israeli chef and restaurateur Einat Admony, also tweaked its menu for its loca- tion inside Urbanspace at 570 Lex. It added a breakfast menu that includes a breakfast pita made with hummus, eggplant, and tomato sauce, boiled egg, pickled cabbage, tahini and s'rug (a Yemenite hot sauce), and a breakfast bureka made with potato, egg, and harissa. The restaurant also added a new caulif lower shawarma, a menu item it had tested at another location. "We are expanding, and we think this is a great location, surrounded by great con- cepts," says Bethany Strong, vice president of operations at Taïm. The brand had been considering the possibility of expanding to Midtown, and already had catering clients in the area, she notes. In addition to the permanent restau- rants, the site will also include a rotating space that will be open to a new business or young chefs. Urbanspace seeks to foster camara- derie among the concepts that operate in the space, while also creating a communal atmosphere where diners can share an expe- rience, Scott said. "There's a sense of com- munity we want to create. As much as we are selling food, we are selling experience. We are allowing community to form." foodservice profile Mark Hamstra is a New York City- based freelance writer. "If they already have 10 stores, that's probably not someone we are going to work with."