19 Cleveland Restaurant: Our Story
Our story at 19 Cleveland began in 2018, where Nolita meets SoHo – but the real story begins over thirty years ago on the Mediterranean coast. Owner Eyal Hen grew up in Nahariya, a small coastal city, where his family’s restaurant was his playground.
By ten, he was already part of the team – bussing tables, peeling potatoes, making coffee. Every job gave him a deeper love for the kitchen and the chaos of hospitality. Eventually, Hen landed in NYC, where he planted a small seed from his homeland that grew to be downtown’s beloved Nish Nush: a casual Mediterranean food restaurant with traditional fare.
At 19 Cleveland, our restaurant is an evolution of that vision – expanding the spirit of Eyal’s beloved NYC spot, Nish Nush, into a full-spectrum experience inspired by twenty-first-century cuisine: bold, diverse, and buzzing with nightlife.
To bring the vision to fruition, Hen pooled his childhood friends, Eyal Asulin and Shai Sudai, along with NYC local, Kfir Cohen, and 19 Cleveland’s restaurant masterchef, Asaf Maoz. Moaz’s career spans various innovative restaurants, a Michelin-starred eatery in Italy, and a stint in Panama.
Our menu brings Mediterranean heritage into modern dishes with flavors from around the world. From Thai fish to Italian pastas and shakshuka, each meal reflects Chef Asaf Maoz’s instinct for food rooted in tradition, and made for sharing in the heart of downtown New York.
Hen says, “There is no such thing as a fixed Mediterranean cuisine” — it’s in the making. It reflects a young generation inspired by each other’s differences and totally unafraid to experiment.
That spirit of culinary invention is perfectly at home in New York, then. An ethos evolved beyond food; it’s a celebration of international exchange.