Quick Bites: Persian pastries, Swedish candy, and a Lebanese-Mexican spot on Atlantic Ave.

By Scott Lynch

Get superb pastries at Nasim Alikhani’s new Sofreh Cafe on Flatbush

Bereshtook, $3; a trio of toots, $5, and a latifeh, $6 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

Nasim Alikhani needs no introduction in this part of Brooklyn; the chef’s stellar Prospect Heights restaurant Sofreh has been a tough table to get ever since it first opened back in 2018. These days, Alikhani’s renown extends far beyond the borough’s borders, having recently received her second straight James Beard Award nomination (she’s currently a finalist) for Best Chef: New York State. Basically, she’s awesome.

And now the Park Slope-Prospect Heights border gets a whole lot of bonus Alikhani with the spanking new Sofreh Cafe right across Flatbush Avenue from the flagship restaurant. The pastry menu here at Sofreh Cafe has many of the same treats you may have enjoyed at the now-closed Sofreh “tea house” in Bushwick, though as Alikhani’s brother Amir told me, some of the recipes have been updated for a more elevated experience.

The case was full of sweet and savory delights when I popped during the soft opening last weekend, and everything I ate was amazing. Kind of a dream breakfast come true to be honest. The slab of date-studded banana bread arrived drizzled with salted caramel and tahini. The delicate, cream-filled latifeh was divine, and the trio of toots, those cute little almond confections, plus a single, chocolate-dipped bereshtook (famous in Alikhani’s hometown in Iran) packed a lot of punch in their pretty packages.

Photo by Scott Lynch

Savory options here include the herb-crusted koukou sabzi, which is kind of like a frittata brownie; the kaak purse bread, which you should get covered in sesame seeds and with a side of feta; and the piroshki goosht, a pastry filled with braised beef and raisins. And, yes, Alikhani is making piroshki khamei for Sofreh Cafe, her legendary rose-crusted custard doughnuts, but only on the weekend for now.

Sofreh Cafe is located at 216 Flatbush Avenue, just north of Bergen Street (there’s an entrance on Bergen as well), and is currently open from Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.  

Swedish candy sensation BonBon opens their Red Hook warehouse to the public

The self-serve candy is $18 a pound (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The reason Swedish expats Leo Schaltz, Robert Persson and Selim Adira first opened BonBon back in 2018 was simple. “In Sweden we consume the most candy in the world, so we have a big passion for it,” Schaltz tells Brooklyn Magazine. “And we felt that American candy didn’t live up to the standard that we’re used to.”

Shots fired! Also, he’s right.

Either way, the original BonBon on Allen Street was followed by a second one in Williamsburg in 2021, and then a third on the Upper East Side in 2023, selling all manner of Swedish gummies and licorice bits by the pound. The enterprise was successful enough to warrant such expansion, and the original trio added a fourth partner, Sara Ciliberto, along the way. And then came TikTok.

In January of 2024, for whatever reason these things happen, BonBon went viral. Like, insanely so. Soon eager candy eaters (and social media posters) were waiting on hour-long lines to fill up their pink BonBon bags with scoops of sour gummy skulls, salty licorice toads, chocolate covered banana marshmallows and dozens of other treats.

“We’ve run out of candy many times,” says Schaltz. “It’s been very, very humbling.” And forget about online orders: processing is currently delayed by “four to five weeks” while the team catches up.

All the excitement (mayhem?) is actually good news for dilettante regular candy enjoyers like myself. For one thing, inventory turnover is so rapid at BonBon that these Swedish candies are the freshest, and juiciest, you’ve likely ever had. Even Swedish tourists and expats, says Schaltz, are wowed by how fresh everything is.

BonBon has opened a new retail section at the front of their Red Hook warehouse to keep up with demand, where you can fill your bags in leisurely fashion from a huge selection of treats. When I went last Saturday afternoon there was virtually no line. Just a handful of happy people and a ton of great candy.

The Red Hook BonBon is located at 66 Degraw Street, west of Colombia Street, right before it becomes Van Brunt Street and is currently open on Friday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 

Lebanese Taqueria El Cedro is an instant hit on Atlantic Avenue

Lamb kamounia torta ahogada, $16 (Photo by Scott Lynch)

The cuisines of Lebanon and Mexico might not seem to be such an obvious pairing. But, as Maher Chebaro, the chef and owner of the terrific new Cobble Hill restaurant El Cedro tells it, the two are much closer than you think. (Plus, it’s worked for the Instagram-famous chain Fatima’s Grill.)

“There’s a lot of intersection between Lebanese food and Mexican food.” he tells Brooklyn Magazine. “It starts from the Moors, who were Spaniards, when they occupied us [Chebaro is from Beirut], and in the early 1900s there was a big immigration of Iraqis and Lebanese to Mexico that influenced their food. Al pastor started as shawarma. Harissa has all the peppers that Mexicans use. The herbs, the acidity: we have a lot in common with how we eat.”

History lesson aside, El Cedro executes the Lebanese Taqueria concept with aplomb — “I try to keep the integrity of both cuisines, not just slap one onto the other as a gimmick,” Chebaro says — offering a full menu of delicious, fusion dishes. There’s a quesadilla made with chihuahua and nabulsi cheese on flatbread, beef sujuk and labne crema tacos, and carne asada with avocado tahini.

Best of all, Chebaro makes a specular lamb kamounia torta ahogada, the tender meat and chunks of liver piled high inside and on top of a huge soft roll, then drowned in so much surprisingly fiery sauce that you have to eat it with a knife and fork. A side of bright escabeche brings a welcome hit of acid to the meaty, messy party.

“I’ve opened like 40 restaurants. I do a lot of consulting work all over the world, but my kids grew up in Park Slope and I love this part of Atlantic Avenue because of its Arabic heritage,” Chebaro says. “El Cedro is a labor of love. It makes me happy. I want to do a second one in Mexico now, and travel back and forth between them.”

El Cedro is located at 144 Atlantic Avenue, between Clinton and Henry Streets, and is currently open from Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.