Café Mars

Arbëreshë, the only cuisine located within Italy in our Global Italian dinner series, is the focus of our third installment. Beginning in the 1400s, a stream of Albanians sought refuge from the Ottoman Empire, in the legendary footsteps of the Albanian hero Skenderbeg. They settled towns and communities throughout southern Italy (especially Calabria, Basilicata, and Sicily), creating the Arbëreshë culture and language that live on to the present day. Café Mars is honored to be collaborating with old friend, Chef Fejsal Demiraj. Born and raised in Yonkers to Albanian parents, Fejsal cooked at noma for 6 years. Over the last 5 years, he has been exploring his roots in Albania and Kosova in preparation for his own restaurant project. Fejsal has also just launched AMËZ, jarring up the world’s first gourmet ajvar for retail. Where other Global Italian events focus on the dynamics of Italians in foreign communities, this unusual Arbëreshë dinner explores (initially) foreign people in Italian land. Both views, inhabiting a space apart and a part from Italian culture, are fuzzy and fascinating. The Arbëreshë cuisine is also much older than the rest, and the back and forth has blurred the definitions even further, centuries of give and take (they invented the cannoli!) have produced a clear and distinct cuisine that is also unmistakably Italian. On March 29 & 30th, please join us for a five-course dinner (w/ surprises) and explore the space between. As this is a set menu please contact us beforehand to see if and how we can accommodate any dietary restrictions or food allergies. For parties larger than 4 please contact the restaurant via email!

For parties of more than four guests, we offer a pre-fixe menu that showcases our favorite menu items and our favorite way to dine -- family style! For this menu, the party will receive an array of snacks, followed by an antipasti course. Then, a selection of our house made pastas and "main" dishes will round out the meal. To finish, you'll get to try all of our desserts! Beverages are available a la carte.