Casa la Femme

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This Femme is far from fatal: After previous lives at two other locations, the elegant Northern Egyptian spot is resurrected in the West Village, evoking the same upscale flair of its predecessors with breezy organza tents and Mashrabya-style wood carvings. "We wanted to [evoke] the period from the English occupation of Egypt," says co-owner Medhat Ibrahim, "and marry it with the [feel] of someone's home." The menu keeps things homey and traditional, with recipes handed down from Ibrahim's grandmother in Cairo. Grape leaves, chickpeas and phyllo dance around a menu filled with staples like molokya—a chicken-broth-based green-leaf soup with rice—and slow-cooked lamb chops with sea salt, oregano and crushed red pepper. In a bid for home-cooked authenticity, Ibrahim has hired Egyptian women with no formal restaurant training—housewives, friends of friends—to come in daily to help prepare the ingredients. "They are 'la femmes' of Casa," he says proudly. "They're the mammas."

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Greenwich Village restaurants, West Village restaurants, New York restaurants, Middle eastern restaurants