Bushwick’s hottest restaurant is located in a warehouse elevator
To access this influencer-friendly rooftop restaurant, foodies must navigate a parking ramp and service elevator in Brooklyn.
The pop-up Levantine restaurant Habibi has become a social media sensation because it combines an industrial-chic entry experience with fine dining.
The reservation-only venue is located at the top of Scott Ave. 154, in downtown Bushwick, where food packaging wholesalers still coexist alongside the ever-growing influx of artisanal chocolatiers and small-batch mead makers.
To reach the lavishly decorated, white-tablecloth destination upstairs, however, guests must pass through a car-sized roll-up door to the back of a warehouse, where tuxedos lead them into a freight elevator and take them up to a Manhattan-worthy event space with a terrace.
“They pour you a glass of champagne as the elevator takes you to this rustic stairwell, only to be greeted by a beautiful rooftop terrace with incredible landscaping overlooking nothing less than New York City,” creator Brendan Fallis says in one TikTok tour by Habibi, which has garnered over 1.4 million views on the platform. “After dinner they tell you to join them on the way to this incredible hookah lounge.”
The idea for Habibi was born in the Caribbean at the Palm Heights Hotel on the island of Grand Cayman, where the mezze-heavy menu, currently offered in both English and Arabic, was first introduced.
Intended for family-style enjoyment, the food offering includes plenty of grilled kebabs and seafood and, according to press materials, “was created from a collaboration between Palm Heights Executive Chef Jake Tyler Brodsky and Creative Director Gabriella Khalil’s family recipes.”
They also point out that evenings at the Scott Avenue address are often accompanied by “a contrast of traditional cuisine and contemporary culture – from coffee readings to drag belly dancers.”
The concept was so successful at the hotel, restaurant representatives told The Post, that it was brought to Brooklyn as a pop-up party event in 2021 and now again. This incarnation of Habibi, which began this summer, will last until the end of December.
The space was briefly closed this month while its staff worked on another pop-up related to Palm Heights Grand Cayman — but is scheduled to reopen to eager visitors on Wednesday.
