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Michael Solomonov, the owner of Laser Wolf and K’Far, just brought another one of his Philadelphia restaurants to New York City. The catch: You have to work in Google’s new $2.1 billion campus to eat there.
On Monday, Solomonov opened the first New York location of Goldie, his popular Philadelphia falafel chain. The restaurant is located in Google’s new offices in Hudson Square, which opened earlier this month, and is only accessible to Google employees, according to a spokesperson. It’s a small consolation after the tech company laid off hundreds of its workers earlier this year.
Goldie, which has five locations in Philadelphia, is known for its tahini shakes and fried falafel. In October, the chain made headlines after Solomonov raised over $100,000 for Friends of United Hatzalah, a non-profit partnered with the Israeli Defense Forces. Pro-Palestine protesters demonstrated outside of Goldie as part of a citywide protest calling for an end to American military aid to Israel.
Several employees of Goldie viewed the fundraiser as a political statement, while others said they were fired for wearing Palestine flag pins on their uniforms. In a letter to staff, Solomonov and his partner, Steve Cook, apologized and said they had never terminated employees based on their support of Palestine.
Solomonov was born in Israel, but raised in Pittsburgh. “Celebrating the convergence of like 2000 years of diasporic history with indigenous Palestinian cuisines and just kind of shaking it up and sort of spitting it out. That’s to me, what is Israeli food is,” Solomonov said in an interview last year. “To say that it’s only Jewish food or kosher food is definitely wrong.”
He opened his first restaurant, Zahav, in 2008. In 2019, it won a James Beard Award in the Outstanding Restaurant category, the first restaurant from Philly to do so. In addition to Zahav, he runs K’Far, a cafe; the restaurant Laser Wolf; Dizengoff, known for its hummus, and the fast food chain, Federal Donuts.
Goldie is the third Philadelphia restaurant Solomonov has brought to New York. He opened locations of Laser Wolf and K’Far at Williamsburg’s Hoxton Hotel in 2022.
