natural.
Centero (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
The quasi-pedestrian of the Levinsky Market, an official urban initiative that would have been considered a hodgepodge all over the world and is here defined as a feature, is overflowing.
You walk along it, giving up in advance on glancing to the sides and instead justifiably raising your head in prayer, and crossing three crosswalks that only God and Huldai will know to tell you where their vehicles will come from.
On the way, people sit on anything that can be sat on, wherever they can sit, and in whatever design configuration there is - interior and exterior, edge and center, Nordic and Thessaloniki.
All we need is a bit of pavement and less than that a blocked road, chairs or boxes, and the promise that at the end of it all there will be something to drink and some small food nearby.
Into all this delicious local stew, the "old-time" business owners occasionally emerge.
A clothing store whose biggest hope is a vintage comeback, printing houses that are building on the revival of the print, professionals who know how to do everything with their hands, except for this "I want to pay with my smartphone" movement.
It's a bit sad, though the talk of gentrification has been echoing off walls in much more southern neighborhoods for years now.
Here, in Tel Aviv's almost last real food market, it's mostly natural, and when you're already seated, in most cases you'll discover them next to you.
Like in Centro, for example.
A sweeping yes.
Centro
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Yaniv Granot (@yanivgranot)
A hopeful beginning that could have been easily wiped out due to the corona, turned into a Mediterranean insistence, an extension of hours, and the fortification of Centro as a multidimensional focus
Alon Lisi's place opened about three years ago on the main traffic route in the complex.
I write "place" because I don't have a better way to define it.
"Food and wine bar" would work well, for example, as well as "lunch sandwich eatery", "business place", "restaurant", "tavern", "trattoria" and "hamara".
So we'll stick with "place", but a delicious place.
The beginning was simple, conceptually at least - a place of Italian pearl sandwiches, which wants to be "All'Antico Vinaio" in Florence, a local shrine whose focaccias that come out of its ovens do not cool enough before they are sold as sandwiches.
"My father studied medicine in Italy, my mother worked in Tuscany, and all our points of reference since then were connected there," Lisi said.
Thus, a hopeful beginning that could have been easily erased due to the corona virus, turned into a Mediterranean insistence, and the production of epidemic cases, the extension of hours, and the fortification of Centro as a multidimensional focus in the last year.
Something fun and decent for lunch?
A soul-pleasing (and pocket-friendly) aperitivo at sunset?
Cocktails and real food at night?
The answer is an overwhelming yes.
A perfect day off
Worthwhile and tasty recommendations in the Levinsky market
To the full article
Urban journey.
Centero (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
including a rare business.
Centero (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
"The Levinsky Market is the last authentic location in the city"
The place opens its doors and spills tables onto the street at 12:00, with a first and main business for NIS 68, which provides enough food and enough excess to take you on a nostalgic urban journey, to the days when, you know, there were businesses.
Then begins the happy aperitivo-happy hour combination that cuts 30% of the menu, and actually makes the market accessible during its most beautiful hours, the ones that connect these merchants with the other merchants.
As I sit with Lisi, one of his oldest neighbors closes doors on another day's work, and greets him with a smile.
"This is the last authentic location in the city," he explains.
A love song for a fisherman.
Centero (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
If this food was served in a restaurant that opened after an investment of millions, as is customary in the city, it would be much more celebrated, and much more famous
The evening menu leverages all the hours and all the energies for a rather impressive display of purpose, far and delicious from anything that could be imagined while weighing the neighborhood and the accessible everyday.
It can also be said differently, without twisting and turning around with words - if this food was served in a restaurant that opened after an investment of millions, as is customary in the city, it would be much more celebrated, and much more famous.
Here, in the market, it's simply a rare Tel Aviv deal.
"Small plates" can appear in the form of grilled Bosha cheese on pepper cream, with a thin sprinkling of honey on top (NIS 38), as a cheesy-creamy mozzarella fresca with good balsamic and dried tomatoes (NIS 35), or just like that, as hot focaccia with oil Olive and oregano and sea salt which is necessary for the fingers and even more necessary for wiping the plates.
Then there is "Secondi" in the form of fresh and wonderful ceviche verde with zucchini and yogurt stone (NIS 55), for example, or a roasted and buttery leek dish, gnocchi with cream and sage, shrimp and also a deep plate of pappardella shortrib (NIS 65), innocent in appearance but Addictive, very simple but superior.
Simple, superior.
Centro
View this post on Instagram
A post shared by Centro (@centro_telaviv)
Two clasped hands, a battle mouth, and a breeze from the whole sea begins to rise from the west up to you
The pearl menu is also present here in the evening, in six versions, some of which salute the great Italians (Del Piero, of course, but also Bennini and Pavarotti) and all of them salute the great chefs.
Sarbald sausage with artichoke spread will fit into one focaccia, for example, and roasted chicken breast with salsa verde will top another.
There is a vegan option, and there is a complex "Mona Lisa" creation, but you would do well to go for a fisherman's sandwich, with sardines, rosemary aioli, that kicking salsa, mint and green onion, chili and tomato and rocket leaves (NIS 45).
Two clasped hands, a battle mouth, and a breeze from the whole sea begins to rise from the west up to you.
An impressive purpose display.
Centero (photo: Walla! system, Yaniv Granot)
Lisi had many years of hard restaurant work, including morning-lunch-evening stories about a roll of industrial paper in the warehouse. In fact, he didn't want to open a restaurant at all. "I thought it was stupid, but in the end I slowly and steadily got dragged into it," he repeated.
Now , when everything converges into a center, the next step comes. "I want to be pleasant, and I want to be accessible.
To make good food, but also to know where I make it," he explained, "There are people in Levinsky who came from below and want to create - including food of course, but also culture and what not - and the market has another beautiful way to go." In this way, you should stop at least once a day at His "place". Even Florence can learn something.
"Centro", Levinsky 30, Tel Aviv
Food
The food news
Tags
Lewinsky market
Italian food
pasta