Āzar opens a Persian wrap counter in Williamsburg

Chef Soroosh Golbabae opens Āzar, a ten-seat counter dedicated to Persian wraps, in Williamsburg on Saturday, November 7.

The address is 740 Driggs Avenue, at South Second Street. Golbabae, an alum of Sofreh and Eyval, built the 350-square-foot space around loghmeh, the Persian word for "morsel" or "perfect bite." "Loghmeh is a super-easy homey concept that never made it out of the home," he says. The food travels: lavash wraps, not plates.

He makes his own lavash with whole wheat flour and butter, baked to order in an on-site pita oven. The ghormeh sabzi ($12) swaps the usual lamb for beef cheeks, stewed with kidney beans and black limes until the herbs take over the meat. The koobideh ($12) mixes grilled ground lamb and beef with saffron butter, sumac onions and basil.

Maybe this is the time to take a little risk and come out of that comfort zone.

Chicken fesenjoon ($9), a pomegranate-walnut braise with pickled red cabbage, stays on the menu through spring. Kashk bademjoon ($9), slow-cooked eggplant finished with Persian whey and crispy onions, is the vegetarian option. "To me, it's the umami of Persian cuisine," Golbabae says.

A loghmeh built for the counter

Sides and drinks follow the same logic. Tahchin ($8) is a soft, jasmine-rice take on the baked Persian rice dish, seasoned with yogurt, egg yolk and saffron and topped with a barberry-prune zereshk sauce instead of the usual meat stuffing. Saffron sharbat ($5) and doogh ($5), the yogurt drink steeped overnight with mint and rose, round out the counter.

Golbabae opened Prospect Heights's Sofreh in 2018, worked at Bushwick's Eyval, then ran the kitchen at Park Slope's Sawa. He partnered with Fardad Zabetian, founder of the live-translation company Kudo, after meeting him at a pop-up. "Maybe this is the time to take a little risk and come out of that comfort zone," Golbabae says of trading tasting menus for a quick-service counter.

A fire named after his mother

Āzar means fire in Farsi — his mother's name, too. Architecture firm Roudiani.Harelson, led by Bahar Roudiani, who grew up in Iran, built the room in stainless steel and amber glass block. Tehran silk-screen studio Garage.co and the quilt label Vvork Vvork Vvork supply the art; the Bakery Studio built the sound system.

Āzar is open noon to 9 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday. It joins a wave of Persian restaurants reshaping the city's fast-casual map, from the new wine bars redefining nearby streets to the tasting-menu rooms that trained its chef.