Get A Helluva Good Halva At Chelsea Market's Seed + Mill

Our latest installment of Quick Bites brings us to the bustling Chelsea Market for halva.

THE VIBE
For a few years now the curators at Chelsea Market have pulled off a pretty nifty balancing act, filling what has evolved into a block-long food court with kiosks, cafes, and restaurants that appeal to both the crush of meandering, gawking tourists as well as area tech and media workers who just want to grab something on the go.

Where the new Seed + Mill fits into this mix is a bit unclear. Located about midway through the complex and facing 15th Street (which means you can't really see it from the market's central corridor), this cute little kiosk is dedicated almost entirely to artisanal, freshly milled, sesame paste, whether served as savory, saucy tahini or in sweetened, flavored cakes of halva.

The design of Seed + Mill is contemporary and cool, with lots of tiles, typography-as-art, and white neon signs. There are a few tall communal tables nearby at which you can stand—Chelsea Market forbids many of its vendors from providing actual seating—and the halva cakes look pretty, and lined up behind the curved glass case at the counter. That the actual slices of halva you purchase are a dreary beige-ish grey-ish color (not Instagram-friendly!) is perhaps a marketing issue for the trio of Seed + Mill owners, but doesn't affect the overall deliciousness of the product.

(Photo by Scott Lynch/Gothamist)

THE BITES
Are you a fan of halva? I'm no expert—most of my experience comes from bodega-bought Joyva bars, a stoned-food favorite of my youth—but Seed + Mill makes the best halva I've ever had.

There are 18 different flavors here, and though each of the ones I tried definitely had hints of the thing they were supposed to taste like—in this case, dark chocolate, cinnamon, nougat, and chia—there wasn't enough of a difference between them for anyone to stress over which one or three to buy. The texture is sticky and crumbly, the sesame-nuttiness flavors deep and strong, the whole package so sweet and rich that your $6 quarter-pound purchase (either as single flavor or as three different "bites") should last you several days of nibbling at home or sprinkling over ice cream.

Speaking of ice cream, you can also get tahini-flavored soft serve at Seed + Mill, and I strongly suggest that you do. This is a terrific dessert, the ice cream itself a goat milk concoction made by the excellent Victory Garden on Carmine Street, with a generous crumbling of S+M's cocoa-nib halva on top. Refreshing and tangy, sweet and crave-worthy, this is the dish that would get me back to Seed + Mill most frequently.

The other dish that sounded great but, sadly, I never got to eat, is the Chalva Panini. Apparently this is a halva-on-challa creation, served warm and pressed. Though I went to Seed + Mill three times, and it's listed on the very short menu, and all of their promotional and publicity pieces highlighted the thing, they wouldn't make me one.

I was told they had already "cleaned the equipment" for the day (two hours before closing); that "the bread isn't good now, come back in the morning;" that the owner didn't bring in any bread that day; that they had sold out of bread... and so on.

I didn't buy the small, $12 jar of tahini, but the samples on the counter, served with a chip, tasted pretty good.

Halva explainer. (Photo by Scott Lynch/Gothamist)

THE VERDICT
Seed + Mill makes excellent halva, and if you feel like you need more sweet sesame cake in your life, this is where you should go to get it. Just don't expect a sandwich.

Smith + Mill is located within the Chelsea Market, between Ninth and Tenth Avenues, and 15th and 16th Streets. Hours are uncertain. (No phone; seedandmill.com)