Hinds Hall opens in NYC

Hinds Hall, a new Palestinian restaurant from the Ayat group, has opened on Amsterdam Avenue near West 106th Street on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. (nytimes.com) The restaurant is near Columbia University and follows a soft opening in late March at 941 Amsterdam Avenue, the former Mama’s Pizza space. Local coverage said crowds lined up outside during the first weekend of service. (westsiderag.com) Ayat’s website says Hinds Hall serves the group’s usual menu of Palestinian dishes, including shawarma, mansaf, mezze and laffa wraps, and describes the location as halal. The company calls it a Manhattan outpost of its Michelin Guide-featured restaurant brand. (ayatnyc.com) The name points to two linked references. Ayat says it honors Hind Rajab, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza in early 2024, and reporting in The New York Times says it also echoes the “Hind’s Hall” name pro-Palestinian student protesters gave Hamilton Hall during the Columbia demonstrations in April 2024. (ayatnyc.com) (nytimes.com) That makes the opening more than a neighborhood restaurant debut. The storefront arrives two years after Columbia became a national focal point for campus protests over the war in Gaza, with Hamilton Hall occupied by demonstrators before police cleared the building. (gothamist.com) Ayat had direct ties to those protests. The New York Times reported that the restaurant group donated food to support the two-week encampment at Columbia in April 2024. (nytimes.com) Owner Abdul Elenani told Gothamist he chose the name as a tribute to the students who, in his view, pushed public attention toward Gaza. He has also framed the restaurant as a place for “remembrance, dignity, and cultural expression” on the company’s website. (gothamist.com) (ayatnyc.com) The choice has also drawn criticism. Gothamist reported that the Columbia protest reference brought scrutiny from social media users and Israeli news outlets, while neighborhood coverage said the politically charged name had already split some local reaction before opening. (gothamist.com) (hoodline.com) The opening also expands a fast-growing restaurant group. The New York Times said Hinds Hall is one of 10 Ayat locations in New York and elsewhere in the United States, while earlier Jewish Telegraphic Agency reporting said the company had eight locations when it announced the name in November 2025. (nytimes.com) (jta.org) For diners walking past 106th Street, the sign now does two jobs at once: it marks another Ayat opening and preserves a protest-era name that Columbia itself no longer uses. (nytimes.com)