O2

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02 - Upbeat Jerusalem Cuisine Inbal Hotel 3 Jabotinsky Phone - 052 337 5546 Hours - Sunday through Thursday, 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Friday - for hotel guests Saturday evening - closed Kashrut - Rabbinut Yerushalayim Last year some time, as part of their renovations, it was decided to change the Sofia dairy restaurant to a meat restaurant at the Inbal Hotel. In mid-December, after a two-week trial, 02 Upbeat Jerusalem Cuisine opened. Our host, restaurant manager, Assaf Cohen, brought his 15 years of food experience in restaurants to the Inbal. Igal Beer, director of food and beverage, adds his expertise to this new venture and stopped by our table to say hello. Off the main part of the hotel lobby, walk through the Winter Soup area, and go through the curtained doors to a room with soft lights and music. Floor to ceiling curtains cover the windows; wood tables with geometric design and padded chairs seat 65; on the right side is the bar which seats 10; in the right back corner is the private room which seats 8 to 10. Large plants are scattered around the walls. Assaf introduced us to Gili, the experienced, Israeli-born, post-army, post-army travels waitress whose English was outstanding (her parents are from New York). She was knowledgeable, efficient, enthusiastic and had a very lovely personality. The paper Hebrew and English menus are the placemats, and the large cloth napkins are a lovely idea. The menu shows the House bread with dips, Starters and Skewers and Butcher Cuts. Assaf started us off with the house bread (NIS 32), which is not just a bread, but three different ones--a Jerusalem bagel topped with lots of sesame seeds; a Frena, which is a long Moroccan oven bread, focaccia-style; and loufa, which is a traditional Middle Eastern bread with more character than pita. Accompanying the breads were: matbucha (which means "cooked salad"), a Moroccan, roasted red-pepper and tomato dip, which tends to be spicy; mehamara, a spicy Syrian dip with roasted red peppers