Food has always played a central part in mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s political career. He ran for New York State Assembly on the slogan “Roti and Roses”—Mamdani is Indian on his mother’s side and Ugandan on his father’s—and much of his campaigning for mayor took place over plates of biryani, inside kebab restaurants, or with a cup of chai in hand. “There is no life without food,” Mamdani told Bon Appétit earlier this year. “When I speak to New Yorkers about what you need to live a dignified life in this city, food is non-negotiable. Yet there are so many who are priced out of it, whether it’s when they’re buying their produce or whether it’s trying to find a place that they can sit down and eat with their family.”
It makes sense, then, that on the night of New York City’s mayoral election, restaurants and cafes around the city were abuzz with celebration.
Even before the polls closed at 9 p.m., a two-block line had formed to enter the watch party at Huda, a Levantine restaurant in East Williamsburg. “This is by far the biggest event we have ever hosted,” Gehad Hadidi, Huda’s owner, said while working behind the bar.
Hadidi’s relationship with the Mamdani campaign began through the mayor-elect’s wife, Syrian-American artist Rama Duwaji: “I commissioned her to do our first-aid choking poster, and from there we have been working together and doing things like hosting workshops at the restaurant ever since.”
For the night, Hadidi transformed the restaurant’s back room, typically reserved for parties of 20 or more, into a theater-style viewing room. It became so packed that Huda regulars Hiba Awad and her friends Joanna and Mo ran home for a laptop and monitor, which they set up at the bar next to the martini glasses. “That way, we can live stream the results for the rest of the restaurant to see, too,” Awad explained.
Friends Sara and Hadear, who started their night with the restaurant’s popular shish barak and lamb kebabs, were seated nearby. “Zohran’s humanity has shown throughout his entire campaign,” Hadear said. “He’s meeting people where they are and touching every facet of New York life. It’s the first time we have had somebody who feels fresh, and it’s really hopeful.”
Huda’s crowd even spilled out onto the sidewalk, where people watched the results roll in through the window. That’s where David Teeghman, a self-described “2016 Bernie Bro,” was posted with his friend Jibran. “I’ve been looking for hope for a while, and finally felt it with Zohran’s campaign,” he said—and that, despite the fact that he lives in Chicago and couldn’t even vote in this week’s election. “I’m a political organizer around environmental issues, and seeing somebody who can link all these different issues of capitalism, colonization, anti-imperialism, and make this economic populous argument to the working class—that has us all really, really excited.” After flying in on Saturday, Teeghman had been canvassing for 12 hours a day to get Zohran’s message out.
At 9:36 p.m., the crowd began to cheer. The election had been called, much sooner than anyone expected. “This feels like the OG Obama era,” somebody in the crowd exclaimed.
Huda wasn’t the only eatery celebrating. A 15-minute drive away, Barzakh Café’s programming for the night was just beginning. “When I booked this band from Pakistan two months ago—I had no idea it was election night,” owner El Atigh Abba told me on the sidewalk, where we could feel the music pulsing through the glass. “This family has been practicing Qawwali, a traditional chant about unity and peace, for 14 generations. It was the perfect way to celebrate the evening; people were at peace.”
Abba started canvassing for Mamdani when he announced his bid for mayor last year. Inside were fliers for the campaign in a handful of languages, along with information about mutual-aid distribution locations and upcoming events from across the Middle Eastern and Asian diaspora. Typically, Barzakh Café is a screens-free zone—but Tuesday night, Abba said, was an important exception: They had to keep up with the election results. “I’ve been here for 14 years,” he said. “Tonight was one of the most joyful nights in New York City.”
