Just a few blocks away from Tbilisi’s busy central railway station and its spaceship-like architecture, the area where Constitution and Ninoshvili streets meet was, until recently, an overlooked residential corner of the Georgian capital. But its centrality and the presence of several large unused historical and industrial buildings dating back to the 19th and early 20th centuries meant that the arrival of investors and new businesses was only a matter of time.
The neighborhood has indeed been changing fast during the past few years. Part of a huge parking lot used for driving lessons is now home to outdoor courts for games of paddle (similar to pickleball), while the remaining space will be transformed soon into a brand-new park. Several of the area’s old buildings, meanwhile, now are home to some of Tbilisi’s more interesting new culinary enterprises, making the crossroads Constitution and Ninoshvili one of the city’s emerging neighborhoods to explore.
Among the new arrivals is Weller, a Middle-Eastern inspired restaurant that opened during fall 2020 in a newly renovated brick house that formerly hosted an underground casino. Since then, a close-knit community of like-minded establishments has formed on the corner of Constitution and Ninoshvili
“We’re friends and we work so close to each other…in case an appliance breaks down, we can always find a solution with our neighbors,” says Tamta Kikaleishvili, Weller’s co-chef and business partner, of the people running Honoré and Doper, two other restaurants on the same intersection.
Just in front of the future green space sits a big building with white walls and blue windows. On the corner of the first floor is the office of Giorgi Azniashvili, a 31-year-old entrepreneur, the space replete with designer furniture and framed pictures of Paris taken by his business partner.
“We had a restaurant in the Vera district but a lot of people are living there and neighbors were annoyed by the noise. We needed more freedom. So we decided during the pandemic to come to [the left bank] of the river. The main thing here was that we had no direct neighbor. In the beginning we rented a small part of the building but after a year and a half we decided to take it over completely,” recounts Giorgi who, together with his partner, has been in charge of redeveloping the building and managing the businesses it hosts. The edifice, built in the 1860s with high ceilings and a floor area of around 3,000 square meters, was a medical center until it closed in 2009, he tells us.
It now boasts a restaurant called Honoré with several indoor dining rooms and a magnificent courtyard, as well as offices and a coworking space upstairs and even an electro club named Aprili. It is possible to spend a full day in the building, from breakfast until party time. “It’s a small club; we call it pre-club because we shut down at 6 a.m. We don’t party till the afternoon, like other clubs do,” says Giorgi.
What looks today like a behemoth started in October 2020 with a rather simple concept: to serve mtsvadi, Georgian barbecue. “You can see it all over the city but there was no specific restaurant dedicated to it,” says the entrepreneur. “In our childhood, before we had McDonald’s or some other fast food [spots], the main activity was to take the kids out to the countryside and have a barbecue. It was a big celebration. So everyone has some emotional connection to this food and when they order our barbecue, it tastes the same as they remember from their childhood.”
Honoré is usually full around dinner time as most customers commute from other parts of the city after work. They can indulge in pork mtsvadi and other Georgian traditional recipes like lobio (beans), shkmeruli (chicken with garlic), kebabi (grilled minced beef) and ajapsandali (ratatouille). Here, you shouldn’t look for overly sophisticated plating; the focus is on quality ingredients and the right preparation. Dishes look simple and taste good. “What we do is super casual; people should feel at home. You don’t need the extra pressure of formal dining,” adds Giorgi.
We also like visiting this big “home” for breakfast and lunch, as Honoré opens at 10 a.m. (a rarity in Tbilisi). We appreciate wandering around the large halls adorned with contemporary paintings and the long shushabandi (loggia with wooden-framed windows, a feature of Tbilisi’s traditional architecture), or simply siting in the shadow of the courtyard and listening to the birds as if we were the patrons of a grand mansion.
Fifty meters eastwards on Ninoshvili’s street, the black paint of the building housing Weller’s (which accommodates a boutique hotel as well) contrasts with Honoré’s white complex. Weller also opened in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time when the restaurant industry was hit hard by local restrictions.
“This period was a gamble, we were shutting down and opening again, then working on delivery only. It was quite a struggle, but the team was so passionate that we enjoyed every moment,” remembers Tamta.
She and the other founders (executives from Communal, a company that also manages a few other hotels and restaurants across Georgia) felt a special connection with the street, which has a more authentic and laid-back vibe than the touristified city center. But for the food, they took their inspiration from abroad: restaurants like Palomar and Bubala in London, and what they saw and tasted on culinary trips across the Middle East.
“We try not to [limit] ourselves with some kind of borders or boxes. We’ve been traveling to Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Syria. We’ve tried to connect with every part that inspires us. Whatever we love, then we transform it here with local products. This is the main thing for us. Ninety-nine percent of our ingredients are local; we just import the spices,” says Weller’s chef.
Sitting in Weller’s intimate dining room which is adjacent to the open kitchen is like a culinary excursion on its own with flavors stretching all the way from Morocco to Iraq and even India, with the freshly baked naan bread on the menu. For instance, one dish is made of grilled chicken filets marinated with harissa and served with labneh, rose petals, bulgur and sumac. It’s truly a feast.
Weller also brings its own touch to well-known Middle Eastern classics. The traditional hummus has a slightly sweet flavor thanks to an addition of Georgian honey. The intriguing zhoujika is also present in the falafel dressing and several starters. “It’s like zhough, the green chili and cilantro sauce [originally from Yemen]. We make it with some Georgian herbs and call it zhoujika, a combination of zough and ajika [the Georgian spicy dip made with green or red pepper and herbs].”
A big part of the expansion of the food scene in the neighborhood is related to Weller’s success. In 2021, the Communal group opened another restaurant almost next door. Craft Wine is a venue offering a combination of nicely presented Georgian dishes with outstanding natural wines from small producers.
From Craft and Weller we walk back a bit, turn left and head down Constitution Street to reach Ice Crime, an ice cream parlor that was opened by Budo and Lucy Kajaia, twin sisters that grew up in the neighborhood.
“This place was not famous before; it was nothing special,” says Budo, who is in charge of everything food-related while her sister oversees the business side of things. The duo transformed a former cigarette, instant coffee and drinks booth.
“We opened Ice Crime here in September 2022 because I was working nearby and it was convenient for me to look after this place,” says Budo, who had been a dessert chef at Weller. “My colleagues at Weller were joking that I could make ice cream with any product that came into the restaurant, be it sweet or savory,” said Budo. When we visited, Ice Crime had all sorts of appealing flavors such as passion fruit, pistachio with amarena cherry, tahini with biscoff cookies, or berry mix cheesecake made with burnt Basque cheesecake, homemade cookies and raspberry jam. Additionally, they also sell delicious sandwiches made of brownie cookies filled with mixed-berry ice cream.
Budo worked both jobs for a year until she resigned from Weller in order to be able to have time to focus on her second endeavor, Doper. At this new restaurant, which opened in September 2023, she applied the same creativity. It’s a place that was meant to fill a gap in the neighborhood: “There are [lots of] restaurants, but I wanted to offer something quick – some comfort food.”
Doper served mostly pasta and sandwiches with a personal twist and, though unfortunately it closed a few weeks ago due to a lack of clients, Budo and Lucy didn’t give up. In another commercial space next to Ice Crime they opened a small – and still unnamed – bakery offering Georgian pastries like khachapuri (cheese pie), lobiani (bean pie) and others; as well as a few sweet options like buns and muffins.
Back at Honoré, Giorgi is working on setting up a new brewery on Ninoshvili’s parallel street: “We are just about to construct our small microbrewery to produce craft beer. This restaurant will be built around the beer concept. There will be a lot of khinkali and a lot of other Georgian dishes which we don’t have at Honoré.” There is no doubt this small yet very diverse culinary corner of Tbilisi is going to continue its expansion, and we look forward to tasting all it has to offer.
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