New Deal
Café 21 shuffles its menu to play the dinner card
By David Nelson
SDUN Restaurant Critic
Upstate New York’s Borscht Belt, a network of summer resorts, dates back 80 years or so. San Diego’s Cabbage Crescent is still in the development stage but could prove equally durable.
Since the town still remains on a learning curve regarding stuffed cabbage, this potential crescent at present is lineal, a North Park half-axis that joins Café 21 on Adams Avenue to Pomegranate (reviewed in the March 5 edition of Uptown News) on El Cajon Boulevard. Should an Armenian restaurant open in Uptown, a crescent will neatly etch itself over the local topography.
Cabbage? It isn’t a vegetable commonly associated with San Diego cuisine other than as a chopped topping for fish tacos or an accompaniment to beer and corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day. However, it’s quite the culinary star in the republics of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia, which Café 21 proprietor Alex Jaradov says are known for the warmest hospitality, finest cooking and tastiest beverages (tea, wine and brandy, respectively) in the former Soviet Union.
Azerbaijani immigrants Jaradov and his wife, Layla – who supervises the kitchen from dawn until well past dusk at a place that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner daily except Monday – work hard to achieve the American dream in a neighborhood whose streets boast the resonant names of presidents and states. Until three years ago, their café was called Café 2121 because it occupied the premises at 2121 Adams Ave. (now the home of Farmhouse Café). When they moved six blocks east, the couple chopped half the numbers off the name, making it easier to remember and possibly spurring a few individuals to forge semi-conscious associations with the 21 Club in New York, the famous restaurant on West 52nd St., with which Café 21 has absolutely nothing in common. A month or two ago, the couple decided they weren’t working nearly hard enough and added full dinner service to the schedule.
It’s a charming little place, and while Layla quietly devotes her time to the kitchen, affable Alex works the dining room, offering the public that very hospitality he identifies as a hallmark of his homeland. Soft instrumental music plays as background to conversations in a smallish space bracketed by butter-yellow walls attractively polka-dotted with circular mirrors and amber bowls. In front, a glass wall admits plenty of light before sundown, but undeniably overlooks a parking lot; the view to the rear is much better, a cozy wooden wine-and-beer bar backed by the open kitchen. On the bar, a hugely oversized wine glass overflows with tulips and lilies.
The menu is relatively short but offers numerous interesting options that live up to Café 21’s bold motto of “Neighborhood Fare with Flair.” Dishes marked “Azeri” are specific to the cuisine of Azerbaijan (the Jaradovs formerly lived in the capital city, Baku), and as both good shared appetizers or substantial entrées, the Azeri hand-tossed pizzas are particularly delectable. Shaped into ovals that neatly fit attractive wooden serving platters, the pizzas borrow the name a little recklessly from Italian cuisine, since they are essentially delicious, puffy breads garnished without reference to Naples-style pies. The server said the version topped with almonds, mushrooms, Brie and a spoonful of crème fraiche ($12) gets the most takers, and there was no arguing with the excellent blend of flavors. The crème fraiche, dolloped in the center of the pizza, added just a touch of richness and suggested the sour cream popular across Russia, but Jaradov was vehement in explaining that crème fraiche, tart and elegant, has no connection whatsoever to Russian cooking (which one might reasonably deduce he dislikes). The cream also appears on pizzas topped with a choice of chicken or lamb and cilantro ($14), and layers of baby spinach, Gorgonzola and pine nuts ($12). A further use is as a decoration on the Azeri pasta ($17), extremely plump packages stuffed with well-seasoned minced lamb and garnished with micro-greens and caramelized onions. An order is both quite filling and very satisfying.
Oh, yes, stuffed cabbage. Jaradov says he has no plans to include it on the standing menu, but will feature it frequently among the two or three nightly specials, which may include an Azeri-style stuffed trout whose garnish includes dried fruit. The cabbage rolls ($14), neat, compact, very lightly sauced and arranged around a fluted mound of garlic-flavored mashed potatoes, are flavorful and restrained, and while the portion is quite sufficient, it doesn’t overwhelm. This is true of other entrees like the fennel pollen-crusted sea bass, a healthy cut of fish cooked to a flaky finish and served over basmati rice with a garnish of tender green beans and well-seasoned shrimp ($18). Layla can be quite the creative cook, using delicious novelties like whiskey-turmeric “essence” to finish a pan-seared flat iron steak with fingerling potatoes and a beer-battered onion ring ($17), and a reduction of Shiraz wine and sun-dried cranberries to sauce Australian lamb chops with wilted greens and mashed potatoes ($19). The menu also lists a “rustic” duck stew with root vegetables, pasta stuffed with vegetables and goat cheese, and elegantly stuffed chicken with a sauce of wild mushrooms, Sherry and cream (all $15). Preface any of these with appetizers like calamari sautéed with oregano and red wine-butter sauce ($9), and unusual crepes filled with apricot preserves, turkey and mozzarella ($8), or attractive salads of greenery garnished with cheeses and fruit ($11 and $12).
Dessert is very much Layla’s department, and she generally makes just one a day. Her worth as a baker is proven by wedges of layered chocolate and lemon sponge cakes filled with a lovely semolina cream, topped with chewy almond-honey bars and finished with a sweet-tart fresh raspberry sauce. In the trade, a sweet like this is known as a real plate-scraper.u
Café 21
2736 Adams Ave.
640-2121
café-21.com
