At HaGefen, everyone speaks wine, and the food rises to meet it
About HaGefen, Local Wine Courtyard Chef: Amir Abramsky Cuisine type: Local Kosher: No Restaurant design: Dor Dettner and Gilad Harpaz Menu type: Dinner Number of dishes on the menu: About 16 Price range: NIS 32 to 86 per dish Address: Noam 3, Jaffa, near the flea market Phone: 058-6609025 Opening hours: Sunday to Thursday, 6:00 p.m. to midnight (happy hour 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., 20% off the entire menu); Friday and Saturday, noon to midnight Reservation required: Yes
This month, HaGefen, Local Wine Courtyard, turns five. The place, one of the pioneers of wine bars in Israel, set out to promote wine culture, food and local agriculture, an agenda that has guided it ever since. At the front of the Jaffa space where HaGefen is housed, a 250-square-meter preservation building with an inner courtyard that feels a bit like Europe, a small and intimate wine shop called The Secret, Local Wine Library, opened a year ago. Visitors can buy there the bottles poured at the bar and continue the experience at home.
Behind HaGefen stand Gilad Harpaz and Dor Dettner, who oversee a string of nightlife and food venues in the city, including HaNasiakh, HaKosit, HaMigdalor, HaMitspor and Sura Mare. The place is managed by Yoav Kramp, who also curates the content and is responsible for service and atmosphere. Niv Koren manages the wine team, and chef Amir Abramsky runs the kitchen.
Why we chose it Over its years of activity, HaGefen has succeeded in establishing itself as a true home for small wineries, independent winemakers and local farmers, and in positioning itself as a significant stop for anyone looking to drink Israeli wine in the broader context, one that tells a story of land, season and people. With an impressive curation of wine and content, including winemaker nights, hosting chefs and food professionals, pop-ups and concept events, and excellent dishes that speak the same language, HaGefen is much more than a wine bar. It operates at eye level, without being an exclusive club, a proper blend of a warm neighborhood bar and an in-depth wine library. That is how you build culture, that is how you build community. Bravo.
Chef bio: HaGefen, Local Wine Courtyard Chef Amir Abramsky, 33, was born in Kibbutz Naan and lives in Tel Aviv with his wife. His romance with food began almost by chance, when he traveled after the army to Australia. He needed money and took a job in a restaurant. "I started as a bartender, and then they offered me a job in the kitchen, in the baking department. After a year and a half there, I drifted back to Tel Aviv and went to study pastry at Danon. I fell in love with boulangerie work and really wanted to focus on bread, but then I went for an internship in France and realized I was a cook. Pastry and baking are the added value I bring to the kitchen, they make me less limited."
When he returned from France, he worked in Tel Aviv restaurants including Goz and Loz, Tzafon Abraxas and Malgo and Melbar. In between, he went to work at a farm-to-table restaurant in the Champagne region of France. In September 2024, he joined HaGefen. The venue's agenda naturally aligned with the culinary worldview he developed in France, working with local, seasonal ingredients and direct relationships with producers and farmers. "From simple food and small bites alongside wine to more complex dishes at restaurant level, I like to tell the story of the people who grow and produce the ingredients through the food," Abramsky says.
Signature dish White asparagus in macadamia milk
The menu changes almost daily, but its structure is fixed, opening with bite-sized dishes and a large selection of field dishes. In this season, the vegetable section is led by the white asparagus from Yochi Asparagus. It is served with macadamia milk sauce and roasted macadamias. The milk is made on site from nuts grown at the Hesselberg nursery, "the only one growing macadamias in Israel," says Abramsky. It is a modest, minimalist dish devoted to two ingredients and built on them. Abramsky blanches the asparagus lightly so as not to alter its flavor and texture too much, and seasons the milk with a little salt and lemon, emphasizing its nutty, buttery sweetness. A little chef ego, a lot of respect for the ingredient.
Instagram dish Shrimp dumplings
Other anchors on the menu are fish, raw or roasted, seafood in season, and dumplings: excellent fennel anolotti (a special) or choux pastry dumplings, once filled with ricotta, now with shrimp, the local Rosenbergi shrimp, grown here in freshwater and sold in the spring and summer months. On the plate: four dumplings in a thick, intense sauce of hard cheeses, made from all the cheese ends the place works with, and chive oil. Meaty, slightly sweet, umami. Yummy.
Dessert Medovik cake
HaGefen's ongoing collaboration with Patura Farm produced this summer's house version of medovik, a Russian multilayer honey cake. "I was looking for a dessert that would give Patura's honey center stage, both in flavor and in appearance," says Abramsky. "That is why the medovik is served on its side, so the thin honey layers can be seen."
The partnership with the Patura olive press runs through all the group's businesses. "Each place works with an olive oil variety that suits it, we work with Koroneiki. At least once a year we hold an olive oil tasting evening with special dishes. Olive oil is an ingredient you can really talk about, and so is honey. And all of that comes into this small and intimate wine bar, it is quite a challenge."
Wine list Wine is why we are gathered here, and the wine list makes it clear immediately, it was built out of love for wine and respect for local production. Like the food, it changes seasonally, is updated frequently and includes more than 220 labels, plus aged bottles that do not always appear on the menu, a mix of large, well-known wineries with small wineries and independent producers, a wide and interesting range of Israeli varieties, styles and terroirs. Every day, 30 different wines are poured at HaGefen.
"Every day we build a different range of wines, light and complex, mineral or oaked, also in terms of price," says Kramp. "And if someone asks for a specific wine, the one they came for, we open a bottle for them that is not offered by the glass. If it matters to people, we open it."
Service The service at HaGefen reflects the venue's worldview: professional, attentive and not patronizing. The team knows how to talk wine with everyone, going deeper with those looking to deepen their wine experience, but also making this world accessible to those just starting out. And that may be HaGefen's secret charm, its ability to be both a serious, in-depth wine bar and a warm, open and welcoming place at the same time.
What we ate Intias sashimi, mulberry sauce, Thai basil, 78 Fakos salad, khurush and melon, HaMeiri cheese, 56 Bruschetta with beef tartare, sardine and egg yolk cream, 66 White asparagus in macadamia milk, 64 Shrimp dumplings, cheese cream, 68 Medovik, 52 Total for 2 diners, excluding tip and drinks: NIS 382
