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The essence of La’ Shukran, a swank newcomer to the Union Market district, is distilled in one dish: smoky escargot luxuriating in butter, served atop a bed of hummus. The Levantine bistro-bar has made a habit of pairing sumptuous delights with reliable comforts since its September opening. Here, you are invited to sip on arak, the anise-flavored spirit, while relaxing in a velvety booth. You can break bread with friends — a sesame baguette, maybe — as you share wine and enjoy the playful melodies of loud Arab funk music.

The concept behind the buttery escargot marinated in chef Michael Rafidi’s mind for two years before he put it to the test. Rafidi, who <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2024/06/12/michael-rafidi-james-beard-award-palestine/" target="_blank">won the 2024 James Beard Award for outstanding chef</a>, said in an interview that he had long dreamed of tapping into the café culture he experienced visiting places like Lebanon and the West Bank, where his grandparents lived before emigrating to the United States. But he also wanted to draw from the years he spent focused on French cuisine in San Francisco kitchens. The result, La’ Shukran, is an effortlessly cool cousin to Rafidi’s other joints, the Michelin-starred <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/at-long-last-albi-gets-to-the-heart-of-levantine-cooking/2020/03/12/eae7ae06-6315-11ea-b3fc-7841686c5c57_story.html" target="_blank">Albi</a> and popular café <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/10/17/best-restaurants-georgetown-dc/" target="_blank">Yellow</a>, in its unique meld of Levantine flavors and French technique. “Don’t call it fusion,” he said, “but that’s kind of what it is.”

La’ Shukran makes its presence known before you even reach its doorstep. The Middle Eastern tunes it pipes into the neighborhood can be heard around the corner from its alleyway entrance. The music is intended to help you find the place, as you must make your way past dumpsters — and the occasional alley rat — to reach the door to its upstairs space in a former meatpacking warehouse. (The downstairs, accessible from the street-side entrance, houses the newest location of Yellow.)

After stepping inside, you are greeted by a black-and-white-striped staircase straight from a Tim Burton movie. The soundtrack to this passageway — different from what you hear outside — is on a two-hour loop. It was designed to sound “like you’re walking through the souk,” Rafidi said, referring to an Arab street market. “There’s sounds of a market, passing cars, conversations of people speaking in Arabic.” This is where La’ Shukran gets its name, a quick phrase you might utter to street vendors that translates to “No, thank you.” As you ascend the stairs, you can hear the clinking of glasses in a tearoom.

Your destination is an intimate space with 40 seats in the dining room and 13 at the bar. (An outdoor patio, when open, offers additional room for 30.) Let your eyes adjust to the dim lighting as you gaze upon curved wooden furniture, mirrored wall decor and funky tiled floors. The menu’s color palette extends to the space itself via smooth green tabletops, a luxe pink rug and yellow tassels hanging off the many overhead pendant lights. Dark walls lend a warmth to the retro environment.

The coziness calls for comforting food. How about some bread? Hummus — whether topped with escargot, shawarma-spiced beef tongue or barbecued mushrooms — is accompanied by sourdough at La’ Shukran. This might be the French bistro influence, but the bread’s slight tang echoes the sumac present in other corners of the menu. “I didn’t want to do pita here,” Rafidi explained. “We have Albi, we have Yellow. Let’s do something a little bit different.” Crispy falafel is stuffed with jibneh, a mild Middle Eastern cheese, and served with a heap of gleaming trout roe.

The French-Levantine marriage takes center stage in the more substantial plates. In October, fried quail arrived to tables with pickled turnips and tahini ranch. Steak kebabs were prepared au poivre, a French technique involving a healthy amount of ground black pepper. The menu evolves based on seasonal produce, though some dishes, including the escargot, falafel and steak, will probably remain year-round.

Rafidi aimed to match the vibe with a short list of “not-so-serious” plates, but his imagination ran wild. “It’s a little bit bigger of a menu than I thought it would be,” he admitted.

Those who know Rafidi could have predicted that. “Some people read books to relax, or go on hikes,” said sommelier William Simons, who also serves as wine director at Albi. “[Rafidi] sits at home and writes menus for restaurants.”

Simpler bites in October included crispy sweetbreads — further sweetened with honey — as well as chilled oysters with a subtle pomegranate mignonette. You could almost imagine the wheels turning in Rafidi’s head after encountering more extravagant options, such as the duck confit fried rice, seasoned with a Lebanese seven-spice blend and finished with huckleberry and garlic yogurt.

In the spirit of the Levantine cafés he visited, Rafidi wanted La’ Shukran to place as much emphasis on its drinks as it did on food. He recruited his longtime friend Radovan Jankovic, also bar director at Mercy Me in the West End, to run the inventive cocktail program.

“I found it intimidating,” Jankovic said. “Almost every dish has salty and sweet elements, and acidity as well. Once you have a sip of a drink, it has to be strong enough to stand up to — or get close to — this bite you just had.”

Jankovic divided his creations into two categories: cocktails with arak and those without. (Anyone who wrinkles their nose at anise or licorice should skip to the second category.) Among his favorite arak concoctions is the Summaq, which livens up its tequila-arak base with orange amaro, pomegranate molasses and tart sumac. “It’s a great way to start,” he said. The arak-averse with a taste for savory drinks might opt for the gin-based Filfil, with herbal liqueur, honeydew and spicy green chiles.

Have a sweet tooth? Go for the Simsim, a rye cocktail mellowed with date molasses, sesame and banana, then riled up with sour tamarind. The well-bodied drink could act as a final course on its own, unless you would rather save room for seasonal treats (along the lines of warm lemon madeleines or the syrupy knafeh nabulsi, a soaked pastry dessert served with pistachios and fruity ice cream). The Bedouin Coffee, pairing cold brew, mezcal and rum with carob molasses and cardamom cream, was inspired by Rafidi and Jankovic’s trip to Jordan. “I’ve never finished an espresso martini in my life,” Jankovic said. “But the Bedouin Coffee, I finished it.”

Simons completed the drinks menu with a slate of delicate bottles and glasses. “French cooking is about restraint,” Simons said, noting that “wine lists tend to match that.” Many of his picks are natural, or low-intervention varietals.

A few words of warning: This place isn’t cheap, so set expectations accordingly. A plate of triple-cooked batata fries and aioli, for instance, will run you $17. And your fate could depend on timing and patience: While a weeknight wait time for two bar seats was 30 minutes in the restaurant’s first week, it was 2½ hours just a couple of weeks later. More diligent folks can fight for reservations, released each Monday for the following Thursday through Monday.

La’ Shukran might already be too popular to serve as the sort of laid-back third space Rafidi envisioned. The team hopes to host DJ sets twice a month, which might become the hottest tickets in town.

But the spirit of Rafidi’s inspiration remains. “There’s this place in Beirut called Al Falamanki that’s this huge outdoor space,” he said. “Anyone can have meze, tea, cocktails, hookah. That’s a café there. … In America, it’s either a restaurant or bar. I want to bring it all together.”

Alley entrance of 417 Morse St. NE. <a href="https://www.lashukran.com/" target=_blank>lashukran.com</a>.

Hours: 5:30 p.m. to midnight Monday, Thursday and Sunday; 5:30 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Kitchen closed for the final hour each night.

Nearest Metro: NoMa-Gallaudet, with an eight-minute walk to the restaurant.

Prices: $12 to $62 for all items on the food menus; $15 to $30 for the arak selection; $17 to $25 for cocktails and glasses of wine; $68 to $180 for bottles.

Boston University, BS in journalism

Sonia Rao is a reporter for The Washington Post's Style section, focusing on film and television. She attended Boston University and wrote for the Boston Globe before joining The Post in 2017.

Sonia Rao

Michael Rafidi’s new spot La’ Shukran is a French-Levantine dream

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