KIPS BAY — These crepes come filled with love.
Margarita Abramov, owner of the soon-to-open Love Cafe and Bar, is dedicating the restaurant to her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who often made crepes for Abramov when she was a child in Russia.
“When grandmother knew I was coming to visit, she prepared my favorite crepes — anything sweet," Abramov said. “I always wanted to open a restaurant dedicated to my grandmother, who survived the concentration camp and who helped so many people after the war.”
That’s how Abramov came up with the idea for Love Cafe and Bar, an 18-seat restaurant opening in a couple of months at 430 Second Ave. near 25th Street, offering a menu of sweet and savory crepes, Russian beer, wine and the Eastern European dishes her grandmother used to make.
“[The name of the restaurant] is love for my grandmother, love for feeding people and cooking with a smile and a heart,” said Abramov, 50, a Brighton Beach resident.
The 700-square-foot cafe, which is still under construction, will offer specialty crepes including one filled with scallops, sauteed shrimp, mussels and crab meat. The cafe’s signature crepe will be the Suzette, filled with strawberry preserves and a special sauce made with brandy and citrus, Abramov said. The crepes will range in price from $7.50 to $9.50.
The eatery will also offer a juice bar and espresso bar, plus pierogies, goulash and stuffed cabbage, selling for $9.50 to $24.99, Abramov said.
Abramov opened her first restaurant in Florida about three years ago, called Sara’s Crepe Cafe. It was also dedicated to the memory of her grandmother, Sara Lemberg, who survived living in a ghetto in Russia and also in a concentration camp, and after World War II was known for giving food to anyone in need. She died in 1967 in Russia at the age of 55, when Abramov was just 5 years old.
Abramov closed the Florida cafe last July to follow her husband to a job in New York City, where she hopes to continue her grandmother’s legacy.
“I want people to feel comfortable, to laugh, and for the happiness to continue,” Abramov said.
