Café Gitane Reopens on East Broadway, Three Decades After Mott Street

At a Glance

• Café Gitane, the French-Moroccan café founded on Mott Street in 1994, has reopened at 162 East Broadway in New York.
• Founder Luc Lévy is joined by partners Nima Garos, a longtime restaurateur, and Norman Reedus of The Walking Dead.
• The 33-seat room keeps the map of Morocco, Jimi Hendrix overlooking the dining room and the waitresses' little green dresses.
• A full liquor program arrives for the first time. Walk-ins only; closed Mondays.

Café Gitane has reopened at 162 East Broadway, carrying more than three decades of downtown history to a new address. Luc Lévy founded the French-Moroccan café on Mott Street in 1994. Its next chapter brings in two partners: longtime restaurateur Nima Garos and Norman Reedus, the star of The Walking Dead, who was a regular long before he became an owner.

For three decades, Gitane drew New York's creative community to its tables, from rock stars and supermodels to artists and neighborhood regulars. David Bowie loved the Moroccan couscous. Helena Christensen was a familiar face, and the following included Michelle Williams, Spike Jonze and downtown restaurateurs Serge Becker and Zac Bahaj.

It was a place to linger over coffee or spend an afternoon without much of an agenda. Gitane is widely credited with helping put avocado toast on New York's culinary map, and its story is collected in the coffee-table book Café Gitane: 30 Years.

The new restaurant is an intimate 1,200 square feet, with 33 seats in total and seven at the bar. The familiar map of Morocco is back, Jimi Hendrix overlooks the room, and the waitresses again wear the little green dresses. The interiors restore the eclectic, lived-in feeling that made Gitane feel more like someone's home than a restaurant.

Much of the original team has returned, including kitchen staff who have worked alongside Lévy for 15 years. The front-of-house team includes familiar faces who worked with him in Brooklyn.

The menu stays rooted in the comforting French-Moroccan dishes that built Gitane's following. The avocado toast returns on seven-grain bread with lemon juice, olive oil and chili flakes. So does the Moroccan couscous Bowie favored, with red peppers, eggplant, golden raisins, toasted pine nuts, hummus and mint.

The spicy meatballs tagine and hachis Parmentier are back. New additions include linguini with lamb ragu and a touch of Pinot Noir, a skirt steak with shallots, chives and roasted garlic, the Gitane Burger and pomegranate-glazed salmon.

For the first time in its history, Café Gitane is pouring a full liquor program, which gives the café a new evening life. The Sheltering Sky, Lévy's personal favorite, mixes vodka, Aperol, lemon and Moroccan spices. The Marrakech Noir pairs vanilla vodka with coffee liqueur, chai and cinnamon.

Classic aperitifs and Champagne sit beside French wines from Bordeaux, Burgundy, the Rhône Valley, Sancerre and Provence, along with Moroccan mint tea and hibiscus tea.

Café Gitane is open Tuesday through Sunday for lunch and dinner, with weekend brunch, and is closed Mondays. Walk-ins only.