New Mediterranean Restaurant and Bakery With Pita Sandwiches and Babka Are Coming to Austin

A two-part Mediterranean restaurant and bakery will be opening in Austin next year. There’s Mediterranean street food restaurant BaLaFa and then bakery Matok, both of which will open in to-be-determined locations within the city sometime in 2025, but are hosting pop-ups through the end of 2024 until then.

BaLaFa is the savory component of the two food businesses. The casual restaurant will focus on Mediterranean street food, which means pita sandwiches made with plain or jalapeño versions of the bread stuffed with shawarma (sliced off a vertical spit) and falafels, with the option to add amba, a pickled mango condiment. Other foods include hummus with vegetarian and meat toppings such as mushrooms or chicken shawarma, salads with tahini, and other sides.

And then Matok is separately the sweets portion, serving up baked goods and bread. Of the former, expect challah, sourdoughs, babkas, and laminated bread flavored with tapenade or za’atar-labneh. The latter includes pistachio-cherry croissants, halva chocolate chip cookies, date molasses cookies, croissant cakes, rugelach, burekas (savory-filled pastries), and honey cakes.

Matok Bakery

Matok Bakery

Behind the two restaurants are co-owners Sash Kurgan, Oren Ben Lulu, and Michal Michaeli, who formed the Dami-Luka Group to oversee the businesses. The three worked at Houston-based restaurant group Doris Metropolitan, a high-end Mediterranean steakhouse. They moved to Austin together intending to open BaLaFa and Matok as a way of highlighting foods from their home country of Israel in Texas. The restaurant’s name of BaLaFa is Hebrew for “in the laffa,” referring to the Mediterranean flatbread. And the bakery’s name of Matok is Hebrew for “sweet.”

Before Dami-Luka Group/BaLaFa/Matok, Kurgan was the head chef of Doris and is still a co-partner of the company. Ben Lulu was Doris’s former executive chef, and before that, he worked at various restaurants including now-closed Mexican Asian restaurant Tavo.

Michaeli was the company’s executive pastry chef and baker. She launched Houston Israeli bakery Badolina under the Doris umbrella. Before that, she worked in New York places like Silver Moon Bakery and chef Daniel Boulud’s now-closed DB Bistro Moderne. She actually launched Matok in the fall of 2023 as a pickup/delivery bakery.

BaLaFa

Until BaLaFa and Matok find a permanent address (either together or in two different locations), the trio will be hosting pop-ups in the Austin area through the end of the year. BaLaFa will have regular pop-ups at East Austin wine bar and shop Cork & Screw on Fridays and Saturday evenings starting on October 18 through November 23 beginning at 6 p.m.

The restaurant will also join St. Elmo area brewery Vacancy Brewing’s Dinner and a Show series on Monday, October 21 for a screening of The Shining. Food starts at 5 p.m. with the film at 7 p.m.

Currently, people can order Matok pastries online for pickups and deliveries. The baked goods are also available at cafe Afuga Coffee’s East Austin and Hutto locations, with some coming to El Tigre’s newer location on 12th Street at some point.