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photo credit: Noah Devereaux
Chama Mama
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You might not know it, but you want some khachapuri penovani right now. We’d bet the lives of our houseplants on it - but if you’re skeptical, just go to Chama Mama in Chelsea. This place has some of the best Georgian food in Manhattan, and it’s somewhere you should keep in mind for any group dinner that calls for an excessive amount of melted cheese.
The menu at Chama Mama is double-sided, and the entire front is dedicated to the cheese-filled Georgian bread known as khachapuri. The most popular kind is the khachapuri adjaruli, which you might recognize as the photogenic bread boat that looks like a melted cheese jacuzzi. It comes topped with an egg yolk and a pad of butter, and it’s objectively delicious - but after the first few bites, your body will catch on to the fact that you’re eating pure cheese mixed with butterfat and an egg yellow. That’s why we prefer the simpler khachapuris, like the round imeruli and the square, flaky khachapuri penovani (both of which come stuffed with cheese). Get at least one of these breads, and add an order of the baseball-sized dumplings known as khinkali.
Khinkali and khachapuri are non-optional orders here, but after that, you’ll have to make some decisions. For an entrée, you could always go with the pork skewers or the beef-and-lamb kebabs wrapped in flatbread - but if you want something a little more interesting and flavorful, go with one of the soups or stews. For something thick and nutty, try the megruli karsho, a stew made with crushed walnuts that’s sort of like a bowl of savory nut butter filled with chunks of beef you can cut with your spoon. The chakapuli, a mushroom soup with wilted greens, is similarly excellent, especially the lamb version that’s salty and sour, with equal parts meat and broth.
An ideal scenario involves a bunch of people sharing all of these things, and, fortunately, there’s plenty of room here. There’s a big space up front with a bar and a view of the kitchen, and there’s another room in the back with around 10 tables, including one that’s large enough to fit up to 12, on the off chance you know that many people who like eating dinner together. With its shiny hardwood floors and minimalist black-and-white color scheme, the space kind of looks like the flagship dining operation of Crate & Barrel - which is to say it’s generically nice and kind of comforting.
But you don’t come here for the shiny hardwood floors. You come here for the kind of Georgian food that’ll have you mumbling words like “chakapuli” and “imeruli” while you walk off a heavy meal. Bring a group, and make sure these people like meat, cheese, and, preferably, khachapuri penovani.