Gothamist: Every Persian restaurant I’ve ever been to has been a copy of the previous one. White tablecloths, heavy wooden chairs, photographs of Persian ruins or Iranian architectural marvels, and the exact same menu every time. When Iranians in the States get together, we sometimes wonder who among us will break the mold and offer a fresh take on Persian cuisine in a sleek and contemporary environment. Enter Nasim Alikhani. Born in Isfahan and a graduate of Tehran University, she moved to America right after the revolution, and has now opened up her first restaurant, Sofreh, in Prospect Heights.

This is not your grandparents’ Persian restaurant.

In Farsi, sofreh is literally a fabric on which food is served, either on the ground or a table. Family meals are placed on the sofreh and this is where everyone gathers to eat—but its meaning and significance extend far beyond that. Each Iranian holiday or milestone has its own traditional sofreh. There’s a sofreh for the New Year, one for weddings and then there’s the Sofreh Nazr—a female tradition—which was Nasim’s inspiration for the name. A Sofreh Nazr is a spread made for friends, family and even strangers when a wish or prayer has been fulfilled. It’s very common in Iranian and Islamic culture to make a vow to cook a Sofreh Nazr for others to help a wish come true. This idea of food as karmic or emotional currency is part of Iranian culture and very present in Alikhani’s outlook on life.

Nasim grew up learning to cook from the women in her family, most notably her mother, her aunts and her grandmother. Amongst these women, food and cooking were expressions of love, care and duty that gave meaning to life. Alikhani tells me her mother would wake at up at 5 a.m. every day to make the family food before going to work as a teacher. And her grandmother, who had a limp due to polio, insisted on cooking for her family every day, despite their protests—she even cooked a meal the morning of the day she died. And Nasim recalls a time when she herself had pneumonia, but made two days worth of food for her children before checking herself into the hospital.

“I love hard labor” says Alikhani, “I define myself and my role in life through work.” She describes cooking as “a way to feel good about my existence. An artist creates. I cook.” >>>