Yellow Café Adds Evening Kabab Menu
Chef Michael Rafidi’s daytime Levantine café, Yellow, 417 Morse St. NE at Union Market, will add a full-service evening restaurant serving charcoal-grilled kebabs and mezze on Nov. 14.
Kababs and other meats cook on a charcoal grill at Yellow. (Photo: Rey Lopez)
“All the Kebabs,” as it’s being called, will offer half a dozen core kebabs including pomegranate barbecued lamb kefta, harissa chicken wings, soujek-spiced octopus and autumn vegetables with halloumi cheese and fermented-chili honey. All are served with whipped tahini, herbs and sumac onions with the option to add wood-baked flatbread with shatta — a Middle Eastern hot sauce — or fluffy butter rice with “crunchies.”
A butcher case will display specials like monster prawns or lamb saddle. Other specials will include tomahawk lamb chops or smoked bone-in short ribs for two or three with an Arabic coffee rub and pomegranate glaze. Sides include vegetable-centric mezze including cucumbers with black-garlic tahini and coal-fired carrots with whipped feta.
A $75 per person feast includes three kebabs, hummus, a couple salads, rice and soft-serve ice cream, which currently includes labne with baklava and pistachio brown butter, and cider with poached pear and candied almond.
The drink menu will feature five or six cocktails using Levantine ingredients and a couple with coffee. Director of Operations William Simons, who compiled the wine menus for Rafidi’s Albi and La’ Shukran, will curate a wine-by-the-glass list for Yellow also.
Dinner seating will require reservations initially with walk-in spots available after the restaurant’s debut. The kebab menu will also be available for takeout.
Rafidi has always wanted to do a kebab shop inspired by his grandfather’s Tripoli, burger-and-kebab restaurants in D.C. during the 1960s and 1970s.
All the Kebabs will be open from 4-9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
New Heights Debuts 3-Course Fall Tasting Menu
New Heights Restaurant, 2317 Calvert St. NW, introduced new fall cocktails and a three-course menu for $60 per person.
New Heights Restaurant has a new $60, three-course fall tasting menu that include steak filet medallions. (Photo: New Heights Restaurant)
The fall tasting menu is available through Dec. 1. The first course is a choice of pumpkin soup, roasted beet salad or Brussels sprouts. Entrée choices include duck confit, pan seared branzino or steak filet medallions. Dessert selections are a chocolate pot de crème, crème brulée or pistachio ricotta cake.
Fall cocktails include a Ghosted Old Fashion ($16) made with bourbon, toasted marshmallow syrup, angostura bitters and a marshmallow garnish; a Pumpkin Pie Martini ($15) made with vodka, pumpkin crème liquor with a graham cracker rim; a Spiced Pear Sangria ($14) with white wine, pear liquor, triple sec and winter spices; and a vodka Espresso Martini ($15). A Ukrainian Vodka Shot ($5) showcases the restaurant’s Ukrainian “PakFutin” vodka served with black pepper and pickled garnish.
Available through Dec. 31 is the Squid Ink Martini ($16) with gin capers brine dry vermouth, squid ink and garnished with a marinated octopus leg. It can be made with vodka or gin depending on preference, and the squid ink gives the colorful effect to the cocktail in a special octopus glass.
