Kiko's Cafe Name: Rolling with the punches: market research in the big apple

I came to New York to do Mediterranean food market research and every hummus place I went to was closed. You might say this could happen to anyone, but as a birthright alumnus I find it a bit ironic that I didn't put two and two together when I found the first, second, third and fourth spot on my list closed for the day. The New York times recently chronicled the new crop of hummusiot that have popped up around manhattan and the other boroughs, so with my two oldest girlfriends willingly following for the ride, I trudged to the East Village, then to the West Village, and would have kept going if it weren't for my "aha" moment upon spotting this sign in the window at Taim:

Passover! Thank you to Taim's owners for spelling this out. Taim is actually a small West Village falafel hole-in-the wall that I frequented when I lived a 5 minute walk up 6th avenue from it. They are infallible in the three kinds of falafels they make from scratch, one the original, one green with parsley, and the third....well, I didn't have the chance to refresh my memory, unfortunately. They also rock the smoothie scene, which would have been good to investigate with fresh eyes given my yogurt bar aspirations.

Time to draw my inspiration from other sources. Luckily, although the hummus and falafel shops of Jewish ownership were closed that Friday, two other mediterranean restaurants that have opened locations in manhattan were open for me to stop in. Maoz, an Amsterdam-based chain with locations across Europe and Asia, now has two stores in NY. I used to visit the one in Union Square for big bowls that I could pile to the brim with cabbage, coleslaw, pickles, eggplant, falafel balls, and a drizzle (or deluge) of tahini. Ahhh, happy memories with my bottomless Maoz bowl in Union Square park. Here is a picture inside Maoz's other NY location:

In several ways, they're doing this the way I would- piles of salads that make the customer want to dig in the moment they walk through the door, with a definite clean vibe. However, the graphics and color scheme carried through their decor, signage, and collateral is way too neon and futuristic for my tastes.

It's funny to break down the food service approach to its bare bones of a cold bar with stainless steel canisters- I could almost be at the Indian street food cafe where I work as a server if the canisters were filled with tikka masala and lamb curry instead of.... well let's see, what do we have here? I see coleslaw, pickled cucumbers, beets, cauliflower, carrots, olives, chickpeas....all great contenders as yogurt or falafel toppings.

Take these salads and put them in a coffee shop/wine bar setting and you see where I'm going.

I was also inspired by Pita Joe, especially their cheeky headline: "HAVE YOU HAD YOUR SCHNITZEL TODAY?" I like that it sounds aggressive although their food is delicate and inviting and their friendly server gave me a free falafel ball to sample (nice crunch and flavor).

In another vein of market research my trio decided it was time for a pub sit down, so we stopped into Blind Tiger, on 7th ave. South and Bleecker. This is one of the worthy spots that have arrived on the downtown streets in the "post-kiko" era, since my move to SF; I find myself a little defensive about anything worthwhile being here now that wasn't when I was here to enjoy it (Gottino wine bar is another in this group). Blind Tiger is inspirational in terms of its vibe.

In Sydney pub spirit we ordered our food and drinks at the bar and then sat down to wait happily and patiently until our name was called to pick them up. Granted I accidentally ordered the most buttery grilled cheese of my life which didn't exactly hit the spot, but that's beside the point. This is the kind of place you want to go and spend your sunday afternoon, again and again.

Finally, in the spirit of food trend-watching, we were lucky enough to pass the Mud dessert truck, one of many that have popped up in the city recently. The New York times has run articles about this explosion of high end dessert trucks parking all over town, like they have in philadelphia or portland prior.