First Taste At Falafel Brothers At 711 Fulton Street
Feast your eyes and mouths on this morsel of news: Falafel Brothers is open for business.
It took three months longer than anticipated, but the organic, vegan- and vegetarian-friendly falafel shop — with five flavors of falafel! — kicked off its grand opening today, May 20 at 711 Fulton Street (between St. Felix Street and Fort Greene Place on the north side of BAM Park, next to Optical Solutions) and is already doing brisk business, with local medical staff, students and random passersby streaming in steadily to pick up $6-7 falafel sandwiches and $3.50-$7 salads.
“The beauty of the store will attract people and the food will bring them back,” said co-owner Rami Avadi between greeting customers and monitoring kitchen and counter staff. “I feel relieved and anxious [that we’re finally open] and want everything to be perfect, but know it can’t always be that way.”
If Falafel Brothers is not perfect, then it comes pretty close, with a fun, yet manageable range of menu options: in addition to the five (5) types of falafel (earthy/original, green/parsley-cilantro, harissa/mild-spicy, black olive, and lemon), there are 11 salads, five sauces, three pita types, and a variety of fruit shakes and juices.
The best deal is a $7 falafel sandwich or $6.50 sabich sandwich (sliced fried eggplant, boiled egg, hummus, Israeli salad, boiled potatoes, tahini sauce, and amba — pickled mango-fenugreek chutney — sauce) and $3 lemonade or $1.50-$2.50 soda/water/malt beer. It makes for a great $10-or-under lunch, dinner or hangover cure.
In the interest of tasting as many dishes as possible, I opted for the $13 Mixed Falafel Platter and $3 lemonade. The platter includes your choice of seven falafel balls (choose three flavors), hummus, Israeli salad, Moroccan carrot salad, your choice of sauces, and a pita (we chose whole wheat).
The lemonade is light and slightly minty; the hummus and tahini are creamy with a light tang from cilantro leaves, and not as tangy as others we’ve tried; the pita is warm and soft; the carrots are soft yet firm and warm, the Israeli salad refreshing; and the falafel perfectly crunchy, and soft, yet not flaky. The harissa flavor was mildly spicy, the black olive falafel pleasantly and lightly salty, the original a lovely golden color, and the earthy/fresh flavor a beautifully piquant green. I wouldn’t have minded more hummus and tahini, considering how it had both the falafel and pita vying for dipping rights, but it was a filling meal.
Other first day favorites include the quinoa salad, corn salad, and harissa-falafel sandwich, which high school student Jacob Kerzner described as “very good.”
Avadi and co-owner Aviv Nagrani receive daily deliveries of ingredients — “nothing goes to the next day” — ensuring freshness. “Leftovers go to staff and neighbors,” they said.
That freshness is visible in the employee-only basement kitchen, which is huge, airy, and super clean (yes, it is new) for a shop of this size. It’s also present in the taste, which doesn’t have added salt and so relies on natural flavors to come through — to varying degrees of noticeability.
Verdict: Bright space, friendly service, good food. The juices and shakes are not available yet, but they’ll be coming shortly once the place is fully up and running. Great for quick snacks and simple, healthful lunches and dinners.
FALAFEL BROTHERS
711 Fulton Street
Open daily 11am-12am
