Huda, an excellent Levantine bistro, opens in the former Edith’s Eatery space  

By Scott Lynch

Gehad Hadidi didn’t really plan on getting into the hospitality business. In fact, when he first moved to New York from Lebanon in 2013, Hadidi was deeply entrenched in the world of urban planning, which he rather quickly realized wasn’t where he wanted to be. 

Work with hotels and restaurants followed, and then came the life-changing moment: meeting Jean-Paul Pico, the owner of Midtown Manhattan’s La Bonne Soupe. Pico told Hadidi he was going to shut his 50-year-old restaurant down, and, somewhat impulsively, Hadidi asked to take over the iconic lunch-spot’s lease and name.      

“He looked at me like I was kind of stupid,” Hadidi recalls. “But he was like, ‘well that way I don’t have to fire anybody so …. sure.’ That’s how it happened. It was really quick and simple. I had no idea what I was walking into, and then Covid hit nine months later, and it’s all been learning by fire.” 

Even though Hadidi still calls La Bonne Soupe “my baby,” a much more personal project quickly took root in his imagination, a more neighborhood-y place that would celebrate his heritage, his family and the food that defined his youth.   

“My grandfather is Palestinian,” he says. “My grandmother is Syrian. My family lived in Lebanon for some years, they lived in Syria for some years, and all of us are Jordanian citizens. So for us, personally, our attachment has been to the region in general rather than to a specific country. Which is why I call Huda a Levantine bistro.”  

Huda may have been Hadidi’s dream, but to make it a reality he handed over the kitchen to chef Anjuman Hossain, whose prior stints include gigs at Le Crocodile and Charlie Bird and who gave Hadidi’s family recipes a contemporary spin. Based on a five-dish feast I ate here the other night (which is about a third of the menu), Hossain nailed it.  

The kalamari mishwi is a beautifully roasted whole squid laid out on a bed of creamy hummus and covered in a chunky, garlicky, broken olive vinaigrette. Hossain says she was trying to evoke a simple meal overlooking the Mediterranean with the dish, and while I have no personal frame of reference for that sort of experience, I do know I hope to eat this again soon on Leonard Street. 

Kalamari mishwi with hummus and broken olive vinaigrette, $23 (Scott Lynch)

Also delicious is the shish barak, a plate of plump, thick-skinned “Lebanese tortellini” stuffed with well-seasoned chopped beef and smothered in a gloppy yogurt sauce. This registers as an 8 or a 9 on the comfort food scale. 

Shish barak, or Lebanese beef-stuffed tortellini, $28 (Scott Lynch)

An ornate little serving dish of blistered grapes is a great way to start your meal, the cluster of sweet Thomcord fruits blasted with fire for a second or two, and paired with some good crumbled feta and puddle of tahini. 

Blistered grapes with feta and tahini, $18 (Scott Lynch)

Garlic fiends will love the rich and earthy charred eggplant. 

Charred eggplant with black garlic toum, $18 (Scott Lynch)

Other things on offer at Huda include the lamb au poivre, the Levantine gnudi in lemon garlic sauce, and the kodra baladi, which involves roasted squash, sour cherries and tabbouleh. There are three dessert options right now, and the booza, which is like stretchy ice cream and drizzled here with cherry syrup and pistachio butter, really hit the spot after so many strong savory flavors.    

Cocktails cost $16, and there’s an impressively lengthy list of wines by the glass or bottle. 

The space itself is charming, with one of the most comfortable, lumbar-supporting banquettes I’ve ever feasted from. This was Edith’s Eatery for about a year and a half — Elyssa Heller shut it down to concentrate on expanding her sandwich counter concept to Manhattan — and while the basic layout is the same, the vibe has changed considerably. 

For Hadidi, who lives with his wife and kid just a few blocks away, perhaps the biggest thrill is feeding his neighbors. “The neighborhood’s been great,” he said. “The whole time we were working on the place people would constantly stop in and say hi. And when we opened last weekend, there were so many locals here eating. We’re really, really excited about that.”

Huda is located at 312 Leonard Street, at the corner of Conselyea Street, and is currently open on Tuesday through Saturday from 5 p.m. to midnight.