Popular fast-casual Middle Eastern restaurant chain Naya is coming to the Upper East Side. A rep for the company confirmed to East Side Feed that they will be opening their newest location at 1314 York Avenue (at 70th Street) this summer.
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The vacant space on the northeast corner of 70th and York Avenue was previously a deli and grocery and sits next to a Pret A Manger.
The original Naya Mezze and Grill, a higher-end, sit down restaurant, opened at E. 56th Street and Second Avenue in 2008. According to their website, it is currently closed to diners but open for takeout and delivery. Naya was founded by Hady Kfoury, who moved to NYC from Lebanon and developed the recipes with his mother.
The casual spinoff’s first location is located on Third Ave between 43rd and 44th streets. They expanded quickly, opening several more in the city and then expanding to Philadelphia, New Jersey and Connecticut. According to a profile in the Wall Street Journal, like most lunch spots, Naya closed at the beginning of the pandemic but were also one of the first to reopen, and it paid off. Naya supplied quick, fairly healthy fast lunches to those who were going into the office. The York Avenue outpost will be their 23rd location and first on the Upper East Side.
Naya offers rolls, bowls and salads – all of which you can customize with a selection of meats, dips and veggies. They also have hot appetizers like kibbe (fried beef dumplings) and desserts including baklava and nammoura (semolina cake and sweet syrup). Bowls and salads start at $11.99 and rolls at $10.99 (these prices include a base, protein, and a choice of up to 17 toppings and a pita).
@eatnaya on Facebook
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According to Stef Yuvienco, the restaurant’s brand manager, the new location is set to open in mid-July. They’ll be offering free entries to the first fifty guests on opening day; customers who come in later will get a 50% discount (to be eligible for both offers, you must sign up on the Naya app.
Stef says that one of the company’s “core values is community, so every penny we make on grand opening day is donated to a cause close to our heart.” For their Jersey City opening they donated “$13K to the York Street Project.”
You can check out their menu on their website and look out for an opening day announcement on their Instagram.
York Street Project?