Second Georgian restaurant opens in New York

Americans and foreigners living in New York City will soon have one more place to go where they can try a variety of Georgia’s famous cheese-filled bread - Khachapuri.

Old Tbilisi, named after Georgia’s capital city, is set to serve authentic Georgian food, including Georgia’s baked Khachapuri specialties, from June 27 in a restaurant at 174 Bleecker St Manhattan’s Greenwich Village district.

Georgian husband-and-wife chef team Pikria Basaria and Vano Kratsashvili will import all spices directly from Georgia to ensure their dishes are authentic, reported DNAinfo.com, New York's leading neighborhood news source, yesterday.

Khachapuri is cheese-filled bread often topped with egg and butter. This variation of Khachapuri is called Acharuli however the most common variety is Imeruli. The types of Khachapuri differ from region to region.

"Megrelian people … put cheese inside and on top and it looks like white pizza. Adjarian people give it a different shape and they put a poached egg in the middle when it’s almost done," said Old Tbilisi chef Basaria in an interview with DNAinfo.com.

"Imeruli khachapuri is something Imeretian people make. It’s a very thin dough and usually it’s made in a frying pan. There’s cheese inside and you just put butter on it when it’s done."

"My favorite is Megruli khachapuri because I’m from that specific part of Georgia,” she added.

This will be the second Georgian restaurant to pop up in New York. The first is called Oda House in East Village, which also sells khachapuri. "But you can never have enough cheese bread. Especially when a nice back garden is involved,” local media said.

The Old Tbilisi restaurant will feature a rear garden and full bar.