Chama Mama

Chef Nino Chiokadze's culinary mission is simple: Georgianize the neighborhood. And she has done exactly that at Chama Mama, stamping stretched dough in a specially built toné oven and sharing the cuisine's richness through fresh vegetables and kebabs, paired with plenty of Georgian wine. The restaurant's latest locale in Bushwick explores the cuisine even further, with more focus on its excellent bread.  

More bread, you say? The front room off Harrison Place is Let's Chama, a 14-seat bakery that balances old-world charm with something new. Here, pomegranate, cardamom, and molasses weave into laminated buns, fresh raspberry tarts are flecked with sumac, and khachapuri gets miniaturized into a morning cheese bite. Coffee is also infused with a little Georgia, too—think fig-vanilla and cinnamon-walnut lattes (we recommend pairing the latter with the cigarette cookie for even more nutty notes).

Later in the day, transition to the spacious main dining room for a brunch that should start with the tour of minced veggie spreads known as pkhali, jammy eggs cooked over a tomato-heavy, spiced ajapsandali stew and beef and pork kebabs wrapped warmly in lavash. Come back for dinner and put the roaring oven to use with an order of the classic khachapuri paired with a glass of one of its many Georgian wines.