50 Wine Restaurants We Love 2021
“We’re barely 16 months old, and we’ve yet to do the same thing for more than three weeks at a time,” says Michael Rafidi, Albi’s chef and owner.
Albi—Arabic for “my heart”—is a destination for creative Levantine cuisine with a deep wine (and arak) list. It was open for just three weeks before shutting down. Many pivots, pop-ups and pandemic-related adaptations followed, but it also made the team recognize the urgency of deeper systemic issues.
“With the industry in an existential crisis, it’s almost become more difficult to disrupt the status quo,” says William Simons, general manager and wine director. “[But] the industry-wide changes that people have been talking about for years—wage fairness, inclusion and representation, the overall tone and culture of the restaurant world—are deeply ingrained problems, and it will take sustained efforts to try and bring about the changes.”
