The Hoxton lobby, soon to have a K'Far to-go counter with pastries, salads, and sandwiches. (Scott Lynch)
The Laser Wolf team opens K’Far, an all-day Israeli cafe, at Williamsburg’s Hoxton Hotel
Chef Mike Solomonov and crew have taken over the entire lobby level, serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner
The team behind Laser Wolf up on the Hoxton Hotel rooftop, one of the borough’s best new restaurants of the year, has now completely taken over the hotel’s lobby with a killer all-day cafe, K’Far.
Named after the village butcher in “Fiddler on the Roof,” Laser Wolf is an Israel-style shipudiya, or skewer house, open only for dinner, by chef Michael Solomonov and Steve Cook of the Philadelphia-based CookNSolo, and Kevin Boehm and Rob Katz of the Chicago-based Boka Restaurant Group. With K’Far, which means “village” in Hebrew, the group is now serving breakfast, lunch and dinner. The new eatery sprawls throughout the hotel lobby space with several dining areas, a whole open-kitchen U-shaped bar setup, a take-away counter in the lobby proper (where a shocking number of locals apparently post up every morning for a day’s laptop work), and a fancily-furnished outdoor patio that can be opened to the elements in the spring.
It’s designed to be a chill spot to nosh and drink and sit and chat and maybe run into some friends and then — why not? — eat some more. No matter how you use it, K’Far is another big winner from the CookNSolo/Boka team, one of those exceptionally rare hotel restaurants that can be considered destination-worthy for those of us who live in the city. As such, even though there are at least 150 seats here, reservations for all meals are recommended.
There’s some spillover between the breakfast and lunch menus (the kitchen never closes here; you can get a full meal or a snack from 8:00 a.m. until late at night), and you’ll definitely want to order at least one of chef Katreena Kanney’s pastries to complement whatever else you’re having. On opening day we made quick work of her pistachio sticky bun, but plenty of other options beckon in this department as well, including chocolate rugelach, pecan cake, and several varieties of savory stuffed borekasim.
Kanney is also responsible for the seedy Jerusalem bagel that surrounds what is likely to become K’Far’s signature daytime dish, an oozing egg and cheddar sandwich that’s been generously sprinkled with zaatar and schmeared with spicy schug. This is crazy good. There are also a number of open-faced “toasts” made with Kanney’s kubaneh, which is a soft, Yemenite bread, as well as a patty melt with fries.
For something less carby, but still plenty hearty, get the Tunisian salad, starring tuna two ways, lots of olives, preserved lemon, harissa for some zing, and a whole hard boiled egg. All of these dishes have real presence on your table. Nothing is under-seasoned at K’Far.
Dinner kicks off at 5:00, and, as you would expect, the vibe of the whole place changes: The lights are dimmed, the music gets louder and more clubby, the second shift of servers now zip around clad in black. In a break from today’s usual small-plates dominated menus, the foundation for dinner here are eight large, mostly meaty dishes. High rollers can tuck into a $69 lamb shank, or a $62 short rib, but the least expensive entree is possibly the best, K’Far’s incredible chicken schnitzel, strewn with pickles and coated with kataifi for a crackling finish.
The kubbeh niyyah makes for terrific starter, a lamb tartare studded with crisp bulgar and fiery shipka peppers. So does a dish called “baklava” that’s basically a bubbling slab of fried haloumi cheese littered with pistachio.
Things we’ll be ordering next time include the pull apart challah rolls with labneh butter, the halibut with grape tzatziki, and maybe the skirt steak with garlic tehina. And after all that glorious salt and spice, the gooey chocolate kanafi with coconut ice cream really hit the spot for dessert.
K’Far is located in the lobby level of the Hoxton Hotel at 97 Wythe Avenue, at the corner of North 9th Street, and is open on Sunday through Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., and on Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to midnight.