Nûrish
Photos courtesy of Nûrish.
“This could not have happened at a worse time,” says Elijah Bah, owner of Nûrish, a vegetarian and vegan-friendly café (with sustainable meat options) that opened on the Crown Heights/Prospect Heights border just five months ago.
After pushing through the fall and winter, gradually building up a clientele, the plan was to gain more foot traffic once the weather got nice...but COVID-19. “I have a good attitude because every other business is going through the same thing,” says Elijah, who has lost as much as 90 percent in sales over the past couple weeks. “That makes it a little easier.” ⠀
Born and raised in Guinea, West Africa, Elijah, 32, moved to the Bronx as a teen and later settled in Brooklyn. With more than a decade in the restaurant business, cooking for and managing a number of healthy-eats spots, last year he answered a persistent inner call to open a place of his own. In Nûrish he created a modern, inviting space with amazing customer service and a craveable menu of well-crafted warm grain bowls, salads, sandwiches and breakfast plates.
“People walk in here all the time and look for the owner while I’m standing right there,” he says of his experience as a restaurateur. “I want to be visible and show that, yes we are able to do this as young Black men.”
“A guy like me, you know, an immigrant from Guinea with a high school diploma, is not supposed to have something like this in a neighborhood like this…”
“Nûrish is a place for food that’s good for your body and also tastes good,” Elijah says of his vegetable-forward concept, partially inspired by the diet he grew up eating in Guinea.
“In some parts of West Africa, meat is a delicacy,” he says, describing chicken and beef as reserved for special celebrations. “So I grew up eating vegetables and grains — potato leaves, cassava, rice, farro, quinoa. And everything was made fresh daily.”
Grain bowls are a signature at Nûrish, with brown rice, quinoa or farro for the base, and an endlessly customizable variety of tasty toppings: roasted broccoli, sweet potatoes, seared tofu, shrimp, lemon-herb chicken, sauteed mushrooms and greens, roasted tomatoes and more. The café also serves a wide array of salads, wraps and sandwiches, all-day breakfast, juices, smoothies and shakes. Popular dishes include the brown rice bowl with garlicky portobello and salmon, sauteed spinach, roasted cauliflower and avocado; the savory oats bowl with brussels sprouts, butternut squash, avocado and turmeric lime yogurt sauce; a deconstructed breakfast plate of garlicky greens, baked eggs, roasted potatoes and smoked salmon; and the classic acai bowl.
What’s up with that symbol over the U in Nûrish? (It’s called a circumflex, by the way.) “I wanted to trademark the name, and the circumflex was the only version that wasn’t taken yet,” Elijah explains. “But usually when people ask me about it, I’ll say ‘Because it faces up, just like our food lifts you up.’”
The restaurant’s minimalist yet warm decor, which Elijah completely redesigned himself before opening last October, is similarly uplifting with its bright yellow awning, rustic wooden counter, white subway-tiled kitchen, oversized chalkboard menu and sprinkling of leafy plants. And we can’t forget the super friendly staff who make Nûrish feel like home.
“A guy like me, you know, an immigrant from Guinea with a high school diploma, is not supposed to have something like this in a neighborhood like this,” Elijah says. “It’s taken very hard work to get here, but it’s not impossible. You can do this if this is what you want to do.”
637 Washington Ave, Brooklyn, 718-484-1122, nurishbk.com
