With the opening of Middle Eastern restaurant Sara’s Kitchen on Broadway last year, it appeared that owner Sara Ali had officially made it as a restaurateur. In just a few years, she had taken her business from a farmers’ market stand to a brick-and-mortar on one of upstate New York’s most happening streets, largely by sheer power of will. And while opening a counter-service restaurant was no less than a milestone achievement for the former engineer, Ali saw it as a stepping stone to her ultimate goal of running a table-service restaurant so authentic that it reminds native Middle Easterners of home.
Now, a year after Sara’s Kitchen first opened at 419 Broadway, Ali’s ultimate goal has finally come to fruition.
That’s thanks in large part to Michael Blake, one of the Capital Region’s finest private chefs and culinary consultants, and Ali’s partner. “I had all these ideas and dreams of what I could do here,” she says, “but I lacked the experience in the restaurant and service industry that Mike brought to the table.”
The journey to table service began in the latter half of 2024, when Blake’s schedule opened up and Ali had extra time to focus on big-picture changes. Their first move was to slim the restaurant’s staff down to just the two of them. Risky? Maybe. But it paid off. The duo spent countless hours reviewing what was working, what wasn’t, and strategizing ways to improve the organization, operation, and guest experience of Sara’s Kitchen.
Their budding professional relationship proved to be just as strong and seamless as their personal one. Egyptian-born and Abu Dhabi–raised Ali leads with her warm personality and passion, whereas Blake has a respected background in restaurant logistics and planning, and is skilled at breaking down larger concepts into smaller, actionable steps.
Some of the challenges they identified off the bat were work-life balance (they have four kids between them, and found themselves often shutting down the restaurant at irregular intervals to honor family commitments); having a smaller, electric kitchen; and simple lack of capital.
“This whole place was bootstrapped,” Ali says. “I didn’t have any lenders or investors. I put my 401k into it after years of working in the engineering industry.”
Rather than feel defeated by these obstacles, they used them as fuel to build back the restaurant better, and with more intention. To address work-life balance, they sought out staff who really understood the mission and ideal guest experience of Sara’s Kitchen. To work with a smaller, electric kitchen and a tighter budget than many larger restaurants, they needed to get creative with a small but thoughtfully-planned table service menu. And what better place to start than considering customer feedback?
“During the most recent slow season, when we thought of an idea for a new dish, we would start it as a special,” Ali explains. “Then we paid attention to the dishes people loved and kept ordering. Some were so popular that we kept them on the specials menu for six months. And now, they’re staples on our new menu.”
Ali appreciates the feedback of all patrons, but especially those with whom her food resonates closer to home—literally.
“When I hear that a customer is Lebanese, I make sure to come out and ask them their thoughts about the food,” Ali says. “I want to ensure it tastes exactly like how their mom or grandma cooked it, and hear their thoughts on how anything can be improved.”
With this feedback top of mind, the new and improved menu was born. On it are larger plates like shish tawook (skewers of marinated chicken and vegetables served with fresh pita, aromatic rice, and toum) and kofta kebab; their popular mezze boards (complete with homemade pita and dips like hummus, muhammara, labneh with za’atar, baba ghanoush, and toum); and of course, shawarma—with all the meat being halal.
To wash it all down, Ali and Blake will still be serving up their fan-favorite limonanas and Turkish coffee. In addition, their new liquor license has opened the door for adult beverages that pair well with the authentic cuisine. Think: signature cocktails with Middle Eastern flavor profiles and low-intervention, biodynamic wine from small Lebanese producers.
While the menu and ordering structure may be different, diners can still expect the warm hospitality that has kept both locals and tourists coming back to visit Ali year after year—whether it was at her farmers’ market stand, former location in Wilton Mall, or current Broadway restaurant. Her nurturing nature can be attributed in large part to her Middle Eastern roots.
“In Egyptian culture, we show our love through serving you,” she says. “It’s like, ‘You look so thin; I’ll cook you a meal,’ and ‘You don’t look full; let me make you dessert.’ When people visit Sara’s Kitchen, I want it to feel like they’re visiting their grandma or mom.”
And this skill that comes so naturally to Ali, according to Blake, isn’t exactly the norm. “In some restaurants, hospitality can feel a little forced or empty,” Blake says. “Not here. Sara really excels at that.”
Experience the hospitality, new food and drink menus, new table service structure, and the recently-installed patio for yourself at Sara’s Kitchen, now open for lunch and dinner from Tuesday-Saturday.
Blake says it best: “Sara never had to do any of this. She could’ve taken the easy street and stuck with her high-paying job. But now, even though we might technically have less, we actually have so much more. We have each other; we have this restaurant that we created. And I think, finally, it’s going to bloom into what it was meant to be.”
