Hatraklin celebrates food in cinema with screenings and an eight-course feast.
By BUZZY GORDONHatraklin(photo credit: AFIK GABBAI)
The acclaimed meat and wine bistro Hatraklin, a Tel Aviv institution for 13 years, is no stranger to these pages. For eight of those years, Hatraklin has been hosting weekly movie nights, screening excerpts from familiar foreign and Israeli movies, and tying them in with many of the courses of the veritable feast that accompanies the clips.These days, with movie theaters still closed, the restaurant has expanded movie evenings to four nights a week – Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturdays, from 8 p.m.-11 p.m. – until entertainment venues reopen.Movie themes rotate weekly, but the clips invariably focus on food, leading ladies, and music and dance. The price of the entire package – entertainment, dinner comprising the “greatest hits” of the restaurant’s menu and unlimited fine wine – is NIS 250 per person (reduced from NIS 350 pre-COVID).Even though the movies are screened indoors in a room that is not particularly large, Hatraklin strictly observes the “purple seal” mandates for distance between the limited number of tables (seven). Temperatures are checked, and diners who mingle before dinner wear masks – when not sipping the white wine from the proprietor’s own winery, Château de Galilee.Because the menu on movie nights is fixed, there is no menu; rather, your host – owner Yossi Ben-Udis – describes each course, just like he introduces each film clip (in Hebrew, of course). Those who are interested may request the restaurant’s regular menu in English to read up on each dish.The movie theme on the evening we visited was cuisines from around the world, as portrayed in movies from France, Germany, the USA, India and Israel. Many were subtitled in English. The idea was that the clip was said to be the inspiration for the course we were about to be served. Fortunately, the fact that this connection was mostly very tenuous did not detract from the enjoyment of either the film or the food.Dinner started right on time, a welcome departure from the Israeli norm. The first course – a delicious orange root vegetable soup – was preceded by the unforgettable scene in the Israeli movie Lovesick Alex, in which legendary comic actor Yosef Shiloah noisily slurps his soup, to the amazed silence of the others at the table.THE NEXT three courses/dishes followed in rapid succession; in fact, at one point, all three were on our table at the same time. The sirloin carpaccio drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar was very good for fans of this dish, while the Galilee eggplant and tehina salad was remarkable for the notable freshness of the vegetable, as if it were just plucked from the Earth. It imparted the startling sensation of practically dissolving on the tongue. Both were enjoyed with Hatraklin’s fresh, warm frena bread.Still, the standout among the starters was the house pâté, made with caramelized apple, and served with toast points and onion jam. I make it a habit to order the pâté in every decent restaurant I go to, and this is one of the best versions I have found in the country.These dishes were served with red and white wines, both blends from Château de Galilee. Alternatively, unlimited beer and lemonade are available. So as not to overdo the tempting wine, we ordered the lemonade, which is made from scratch. It is so good that the supply ran out halfway through the meal, so be sure to order it at the start.Space does not permit going into detail about the movies shown, but they included Babette’s Feast, Martha’s Table, The President’s Chef, and Julie and Julia, starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child. Between clips, as we savored our food, clips featured beloved music from soundtracks like Hair and Grease, as well as from such dance movies as Saturday Night Fever, Flashdance and Dirty Dancing.Just before a 15-minute Intermission, a chicken curry was served, along with white rice. Seasoning-wise, I would not define it as a curry by any stretch; but the white meat chicken was tender, and the vegetables ideal accompaniment.When movies and dinner resumed, most of the clips were from Israeli films, and the majority of those were comic in nature. Funny as they were, they did not distract from the pièce de résistances of the evening: two steaks made with distinctive Wagyu beef crossbred with Angus, raised locally in the Golan Heights.The succulent signature steak of Hatraklin is skirt steak, sliced razor-thin to be cooked by each diner on a sizzling hot rock. Care must be taken: no sooner do you drape a slice on the rock then you have to flip it over, lest it be overcooked. The whole experience is delicious fun.This shared the stage with a juicy chopped steak, enhanced by a superb sauce.Dessert, introduced by a clip from the movie Chocolat (with Juliet Binoche and Johnny Depp), was a sampler of three very different sweets: coconut malabi with berry coulis, mango sorbet, and best of all, decadent, fudgy chocolate squares. These were washed down by tea with sprigs of fresh mint.For those inclined to linger after the three-hour affair, espresso was served at the bar. And bottles of Château de Galilee wine were sold at a significant discount.Finally, patrons preferring to eat al fresco (very limited seating on the relatively spacious front porch), can still enjoy, until July 17, a special six-course meal at the reduced price of NIS 400 per couple.Hatraklin Meat and Wine BistroNot kosherSun-Fri: 6:30 p.m.-midnight, Sat: 1 p.m.-midnightHeichal Hatalmud St. 4; Tel Aviv. Ph: 03-566-0013The writer was a guest of the restaurant.
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