To access this influencer-friendly rooftop restaurant, foodies must brave a Brooklyn parking ramp and service elevator.
Levantine pop-up restaurant Habibi has become a social media sensation for combining an industrial-chic entrée experience with fine dining.
The reservations-only venue is located atop 154 Scott Ave. at the tip of Bushwick, where wholesale food packaging businesses still coexist alongside the ever-growing influx of artisan chocolatiers and of small batch mead makers.
However, to reach the lushly landscaped, white-tablecloth destination above, diners must pass through a car-sized drop-down door and into the back of a warehouse, where operators in tuxedos ride in a freight elevator and travel with them to a Manhattan-style event space complete with a terrace.
“They pour you a glass of champagne as the elevator takes you up to this rustic stairwell, to be greeted by a beautiful rooftop with incredible landscaping overlooking none other than New York City,” said creator Brendan Fallis in a Habibi TikTok tour that has racked up over 1.4 million views on the platform. “After dinner they tell you to join them in, that’s right, this amazing hookah lounge.”
The idea for Habibi was born in the Caribbean, at the Palm Heights Hotel on the island of Grand Cayman, where the mezze menu, currently presented in English and Arabic, was first launched.
Dishes, meant to be enjoyed as a family, include plenty of grilled skewers and seafood, and were “born from a collaboration between Palm Heights Executive Chef Jake Tyler Brodsky and creative director Gabriella’s family recipes Khalil,” according to press materials.
They also note that evenings at the Scott Avenue address are often accompanied by a “contrast between traditional cuisine and contemporary culture – from café readings to belly dancers”.
The concept was so successful at the hotel, restaurant representatives told the Post, that it was brought to Brooklyn as a pop-up event in 2021 and now again. This incarnation of Habibi, started this summer, will continue until the end of December.
The space briefly closed its doors this month while its staff worked at another related pop-up in Palm Heights Grand Cayman – but is expected to reopen to eager customers on Wednesday.
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