Cafe Nadery

(This venue is closed.) To the ranks of cooling concoctions that blur the boundaries between drink and dessert, add majoon ($8), confected of yogurt, bananas, and Medjool dates and decked out with coconut flakes and chopped nuts. It's heavy for a smoothie; mine came with a spoon rather than a straw.

This Persian-inspired cafe is just days old; a full menu designed by Louisa Shafia, author of The New Persian Kitchen, debuts late this month. Coffee, tea, wine, and beer, both on draft and in bottles, are already at hand. So is a non-circulating library, primarily in English but also in Farsi, appealing to the eclectic interests of the NYU community: Ovid and John Kennedy Toole, Roadfood and Soccernomics, Sartre and Sklansky.

Cafe Nadery
16 West 8th St. (Fifth Ave.-Macdougal St.), Manhattan
212-260-5407
www.Facebook.com/CafeNaderyManhattan