The neighborhood around the Machane Yehuda market is Jerusalem's Little Iraq: The shuk is home to an aisle called the Iraqi Shuk, where vendors of Iraqi Jewish extraction peddle mountains of vegetables; synagogues that pray according to the rites of the Kurdish and Iraqi communities abound; and at least a dozen restaurants specializing in Kurdish/Iraqi Jewish home cooking are found clustered on or near Agrippas Street.

While most of these restaurants cater to the lunchtime worker crowd, Jerusalem's hipsterati need their kubeh soup, too, preferably in a place where they can see and by seen by their young and trendy compatriots – and so they gather at Hakubiya 18, within an easy walk from the shuk on Beit Ya'akov Street.

Hakubiya 18 serves a refined version of traditional homestyle Kurdish-Iraqi fare, sprinkled with French influences to give it the international flair demanded by Israeli trendsetters. But even the French can't really improve on kubeh, the spiced beef-filled dumplings that are the signature dish of Iraqi Jews.

By night, Hakubiya embraces its bar aspect, serving abundant liquor to crowds who show up for frequent live music.