Meet the new Sofra, much the same as the old Sofra, but also a whole lot bigger.
In 2008, the original bakery-cafe from Oleana chefs Ana Sortun and Maura Kilpatrick opened in Cambridge, across the street from Mount Auburn Cemetery. Serving cardamom-scented morning buns glazed in orange blossom icing, lush spiced shakshuka, a rainbow of meze, and stuffed flatbreads, it was ideal in most every way. If only there were more room to enjoy it. With around 16 seats, Sofra requires one to bring patience or luck when visiting. For those who don’t live nearby, it can be a favorite destination that doesn’t get frequented nearly enough: Will the stars align? Are we too hungry to try?
So it was exciting to learn that a second Sofra was opening in Allston, near the intersection of North Harvard Street and Western Avenue — within reach of Harvard, and right near the American Repertory Theater’s new home. It’s also across the street from a Trader Joe’s, less scenic than Mount Auburn Cemetery but more useful for those who require regular resupply of frozen dumplings and dried fruit. And it has a small parking lot. (Very small. The parking lot is the equivalent of the original Sofra, space-wise. The first time I used it, I had to slide in via the passenger side in order to drive away.)
The most important thing to know about Sofra Part Deux is that it is about twice the size of the original. It seats roughly 40 people, and there will be outdoor seating as well in the warmer months.
“The pendulum swung,” Sortun says. “We built something very big.”
On a recent late-morning visit, the place is almost full nonetheless. But I have time to peruse the shelves filled with spice blends, granola, and cookbooks, eyeball the prepared foods and pastry cases, have a nice chat with a staff member about what’s good, and place my order at the counter before sliding into one of the wooden tables to wait for my red lentil kofte flatbread and halva latte. The crowd is international; the eavesdropping is great (every other conversation seems to be about whether to leave the country and where to move instead). By the time I’m ready to depart, seats are hard to come by, and two friends nab the table I’m vacating with little squeaks of excitement. Arriving slightly before the lunch rush: highly recommended if you can swing it.
The space is bright and light, with spring green walls and plenty of pale wood, the counter where one orders lined with tan and white geometric tiles that reflect onto the shiny floor below. Tables extend along a wall all the way to the back, and there are communal hightops at the center of the room. Guests proceed down the long counter, ordering baklava, date almond ma’amoul, Black Sea cornbread, and other baked goods; then breakfast dishes, flatbreads, and meze; then tea and coffee drinks. They receive a number to display on their table, so a staffer knows where to bring it.
The nice thing about visiting the new Sofra is rediscovering the dishes one loves at the original. The menus at the Middle Eastern-inspired bakery-cafes are virtually identical, focused around foods and flavors from Turkey, Lebanon, and Greece.
“I had this sense that Sofra in Cambridge belongs to everyone. It’s not ours, it’s our guests’. It belongs to the neighborhood,” Sortun says. “My big fear was that people would be nervous things were going to change, and that one was going to be lesser than the other. We’re trying to keep them the same. We’re focused right now on being consistent across the board.”
All of your favorites are here. The counter is laden with baked goods: the famed morning buns, with their floral, lightly golden icing; tender little almond rose cakes with mastic glaze; sour cherry crumb bars and pear almond Bostock; an array of cookies including jam-filled Syrian shortbread thumbprints and powder sugar-dusted chocolate earthquakes. Among the sweets are rye focaccia with preserved lemon and rosemary, the za’atar-topped flatbreads mana’eesh, flaky triangles of spanakopita, and carrot pogaca, Turkish buns made with feta and dill. Triangular Turkish mosaic cake, made with bittersweet chocolate, pistachios, and candied orange, tempts from behind the glass of a pastry case, a perfect sweet for the season. It shares the shelves with yogurt parfaits, chocolate apricot halawa, chocolate tahini tarts, and several kinds of baklava. You should take an assortment home for later.
First it’s meze time. Half the customers seem to be ordering platters of five cold meze, including hummus, hot pepper labne, grape leaves, Moroccan-style carrot salad, and the irresistible gigante beans with green olives, lemon, and coriander. Assorted breads and crackers can be added on for dipping.
For lunch, there are soups and salads, shawarma, stuffed flatbreads, and pies. The spinach falafel with beet tzatziki, arugula, pickles, and tahini is a longtime favorite, and sausage with cumin, orange, and olives is also great. But I think the red lentil kofte wrap, with tomato brown butter, cabbage, and pickled peppers, is the sleeper dish with its rich, contrasting flavors and textures. If you get here for breakfast, shakshuka is a must, but don’t forget the egg sandwich with haloumi cheese, the granola bowls, or the classic Turkish breakfast with soft-boiled egg, cucumber, tomato, feta, olives, labne, and fruit preserves. Sip Turkish coffee or tea, house-made chai, Red Dragon iced tea (made with green tea and sour cherry), or orange blossom lemonade. At the end of the counter, one can see into the spacious, uncluttered workspace lined with gleaming, stainless steel shelves, where no one is stepping on anyone else’s toes.
The new space is a realization of a longtime dream. Sortun and Kilpatrick had been looking for something bigger, a search put on pause during COVID’s peak and then resumed. The tight quarters of the original Sofra made it difficult to offer fun specials or holiday treats; with Allston now baking central, there’s room to produce more and, for the Cambridge cooks, finally room to move. “That doesn’t help the customers much, because it’s still small and crowded,” Sortun says. They hope to expand the Cambridge digs into the adjacent space that housed Violette Wine Imports.
Too, the expansion gives longtime staff new opportunities for career growth, Sortun says. Pri Paige is now executive chef of both locations; Amber Gouveia, who was sous chef in Cambridge for five years, is chef de cuisine in Allston. And Feyza Bayrakcioglu Ozden, another five-year employee, is now executive pastry chef. With more space, Sofra can also offer more classes. Upcoming offerings include a root vegetable cooking class from Paige, a condiments and sauces class from Sortun, and a Valentine’s pastry class from pastry chef Nik Mastalerz.
Bigger isn’t always better, but two Sofras are better than one. (That said, the big new production space doesn’t mean more Sofras are on the way.) The new location and additional seats make morning buns, shakshuka, meze, and red lentil flatbreads that much more accessible. “We can reach and feed so many more people than we can in a restaurant,” Sortun says.
210 North Harvard St., Allston, 617-870-7915, www.sofrabakery.com. Breakfast $7.50-$12, lunch $11-$14, meze $2-$12, baked goods $2-$5.
Devra First can be reached at devra.first@globe.com. Follow her on Instagram @devra_first.