Ibrik Kitchen
Romanian restaurant · Mail ·
Neo-nostalgic Romanian dishes like smoked pastrama and sarmale
Neo-nostalgic Romanian dishes like smoked pastrama and sarmale
"An intimate four-year-old Balkan canteen in Paris run by Ecaterina (Cathy) Paraschiv and linked to a sister coffee shop, it attracted regulars who savored dishes like chiftele and baked feta even as the city braced for renewed lockdowns. Staff scrambled to sell off dishes and ingredients before closing while contending with disrupted supplier deliveries, out-of-stock products, and the anxiety of sudden policy shifts. The restaurant qualified for partial unemployment and payroll-tax relief, easing immediate payroll pressures, but rent and ongoing construction on the owner’s planned Balkan deli remain unresolved. The owner has chosen not to pivot to takeaway or third-party delivery apps—citing both practical limits to adapting overnight and opposition to app-based labor practices—and is using the forced pause to plan next steps." - Lindsey Tramuta
"This new Romanian restaurant in the Sentier district — formerly Paris’s garment industry neighborhood and now one of its livelier and younger neighborhoods — looks a lot like an art gallery, with white-painted walls decorated with folk art, spotlights, and oak parquet. Working in an open kitchen, two award-winning young Romanian chefs are serving up what they describe as “neo-nostalgic” dishes, or riffs on traditional Romanian eats like pastramă, the roasted brined beef known as pastrami in most English speaking-countries, which comes to the table here covered with Transylvanian truffle shavings in a smoked-filled bell jar. There’s also sarmale, fermented cabbage rolls with meat-and-rice filling and a side of mămăligă cu smăntănă, a polenta-like cornmeal porridge with lashings of sour cream, and a rich nut-studded pistachio cake for dessert." - Alexander Lobrano
