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The 6 Best Restaurants You’ve Never Heard OfWritten by Sarah Cox I may just get hate mail for writing this column. For the secret’s out—there are nuggets of gold in the Roanoke area—not fool’s gold, mind you, but the real deal—plunked away in plain sight. And certainly you locals who have been crafty enough to seek them out on your own may just prefer to keep these treasures all to yourselves.
Full Moon Café Just past the Kroger on 221, everything you see in the cases here is made by the hands of Francis and Veronica Moon, who established this tiny but real-deal New York-style deli/bakery place two years ago. Stopping in for lunch—loaded salads, mile-high grilled sandwiches bursting with Boar’s Head meat—always, always get a cookie knobby with chocolate chips on the side, and pick up a box of flaky croissants or a dozen homemade bagels for the next day. Or return to The Full Moon for breakfast. The breakfast wrap just oozes fine-chopped sausage and cheddar cheese and buttery scrambled egg. The French pocket is hearty and delicious; it’s a closed pastry sandwich, perfect for on-the-go munching. The cookies are like you and your mom used to make: golden, bulgy goodies in chocolate chip, white chocolate Macadamia nut, peanut butter chocolate, English toffee, and oatmeal raisin varieties. Francis and Veronica will even do baker’s half dozens in this new century of finely measured sweets and treats.
The Isaacs Restaurant Around the corner from the Grandin Theatre, there’s a brand new (as of this May) Eastern Mediterranean restaurant named The Isaacs that serves very cool versions of hummus, such as black bean, spinach and feta, Kalamata olive, and roasted red pepper. In the category of “warm ups” are very, very generous portions of samosas whose pastry lingers only for a moment on your slavering tongue before melting away to reveal a combination of ginger, ground beef, and cilantro. You are officially in an oasis. Other great bets are the Greek salad, served with the restaurant’s own sun dried tomato ginger vinaigrette, or the chicken Shawarma, which is thinly sliced chicken wrapped up with lettuce, cucumbers, onions, pickles, and tomatoes and put to bed with tahini sauce. (Says a friend who recently moved here from New York City, land of ubiquitous and mouth-watering Shawarma joints, “It’s the best one I’ve ever had. Really.”) Two vegetarian dishes, Ajay’s and Delia’s, appeal not just to those off meat. The first features a combination of zucchini, squash, broccoli, and tomato, marinated, and charbroiled. The second contains red potatoes, green pepper, tomatoes, whole garlic cloves, and mushrooms, and this, too, is charbroiled. Finish your meal with some homemade baklava, fudge pie, or cannolis. Then give yourself two days to recover.
Dave’s Restaurant ‘Cause you’re going to need it where you’re going next. Dave’s Restaurant in Northeast has customers that are known by their first names and have been eating lunch there for more than 15 years. Why? A few tasty reasons: Dave’s mashed potatoes are better than my mom’s (I can say this because she’s in Oregon and won’t read this), and their Wednesday special of two breaded pork chops, homemade gravy, vegetable side, and a roll is only $5.49. Others prefer to feast on the Fat Daddy, a half pound sirloin burger with bacon, Swiss cheese, lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise. They don’t stint at Dave’s because the crowd comes hungry and expects a lot. The regular guys like their burgers big and their beer cold, and the folks at Dave’s are happy to serve it up. What you will find, in addition to the home cooking that you used to find around every corner in a small town (which has seemingly been airlifted by Martians for their own planet), is courtesy and friendliness. The day I went there for lunch, patrons were asked if they wanted their usual favorites. You can get a 10-ounce flat iron steak for only $14.99, and that comes with a salad, baked potato, and roll. You can order dinners to go for that hungry, after-game crowd. And you can expect homemade soups in cooler weather.
Red Jasmine Thai Restaurant Not too far from Dave’s is a world away in terms of accent and tone. That would be the relatively new Red Jasmine Thai restaurant on South Pollard Street in Vinton. You know—that area that kind of smacks like Mayberry? Go figure that a Thai restaurant, run by a family that has been cooking in the Boston area for 20 years, would end up on the street known more for a car dealership and an appliance store. What you’ll find driving this one, though, is fuel known as red jasmine and white jasmine rice that’s both nutty and sticky. Water with a hint of refreshing lemon. Appetizers like tod mun, which is minced shrimp beaten and ground with Thai curry paste, deep fried, and served with a cooling (and you’ll need that) peanut-cucumber sauce. Just a hint: mind the illustrations of one and two red peppers beside dishes such as the tom yum shrimp soup, a hot and sour concoction with chili, herbs, lime juice, lemon grass, and mushrooms. Two means Wow. One means damned hot. Because I’m a sucker for duck, I ordered the dish aptly named “Amazing Duck,” and indeed it was. Generous bites of duck gently sop up a sauce of Thai chili garlic, alongside broccoli, mushrooms, red peppers, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, and tomatoes. The tomatoes, in addition to giving the entrée a nice contrast, provided a welcome and cool relief to the two-pepper dish. There is also a respectable assortment of curry dishes, ranging from red and yellow to green and mango. Not on the menu, but in season just at that moment, was the fried mango with sticky rice dessert. The rice was dribbled with coconut milk, making it warm, while the silky mango slithered down and was gone way too soon. Just like paradise to vanish in a minute. And while mango may be done for the year, desserts such as fried banana and fried ice cream are on the menu.
The Seafood Co. Your last stop in a quest that will result in a very satisfied palate is The Seafood Co. on Broadway, which is essentially right off Colonial Avenue, heading away from Towers, on the left hand side next to Heavenly Ham. If you mourn The Angler restaurant, weep no more. Steve Van Metre, co-owner of that former establishment, is now partners with Frank Guilfoyle in this one, where you can still find Van Metre’s mother-in-law’s sinful cakes and the Senegalese stew, a creation of shrimp in a spicy sauce of apricots, veggies, dates, mango chutney, coconut and curry. This is where my luncheon companion had the audacity not only to eat all of her homemade potato chips, but to smile as she was doing so. But to bring balance to the universe, I ordered the most enormous lobster burrito on Earth that was stuffed with fat chunks of lobster, Southwest bean sauce, and brown rice. My date had a soft-shell crab cake sandwich, equally delicious, but we were advised later that the fresh soft shells are much preferable in taste and size, so go with that. Tempting soups are crab bisque, Island seafood chowder, and spicy black bean, as well as a selection of the day. Entrees such as fish and chips, Chilean sea bass, shrimp with pasta and sauce, and a captain’s platter—or, my daughter’s favorite, mussels with garlic and lemon—offer a wide selection to hungry patrons. So does their very reasonable wine and beer list, including a respectable range of microbrews. Their guacamole and salsa are homemade, as is their coleslaw and dressings. Are you crying “Uncle!” yet? The fun thing about a city that’s growing and changing and welcoming and retaining is that you, too, can find your own jewels around the most obscure corners, or right out there in plain sight. These … well, these are just a few to get you started on your slow and sinful slide to weight-gain hell as you lick your fingers and ask for more.
Coda Coffee, Wine, and Crepes (Editor’s Add) Since its opening over a year ago, Coda on Grandin Road has slowly but surely built a following among Raleigh Courtians in the know. I recently discovered it and have become hooked. For one, Coda offers a short but pleasing list of delicious crepes and creative salads, plus rich and nutty cups of coffee (even in my coffee snobbery, I’d put them in the running for Best Cuppa in the city). The neighborly joint also features an eye-catching baker’s case brimming with a solid, if numbered, selection of gorgeous desserts. But where Coda earns bonus points is with the wine list—although brief, it has obviously been compiled by someone with a palate. Wednesday through Saturday, the place fills up with people of all ages, enjoying bands playing sultry live jazz or real-deal bluegrass (overall-clad musicians and all). Pull up a chair on the outdoor patio, and order a glass of Pinot. Sipping or nibbling at Coda is the perfect way to wile away a summer day or eve. (Closed Sunday).
Posted: August 1st, 2007 under Taste of the City. ~Sarah Cox loves to eat and write about food—probably in that order. She believes that most good cooking is the result of excellent ingredients, a dollop of wine and some Miles Davis in the background. This is while her daughter emails her from UVA with a grammar question, and her son’s drum tempo shakes the floor, thus helping reduce the red sauce. Sarah has eaten in working men’s cafes in Tehran, coffee shops in Salzburg, beer halls in Munich, and train stations in Copenhagen, but she likes her mom’s cherry pie best of all. She is a graduate of The University of Virginia and the Hollins Masters program in Writing. She can be contacted in care of City Magazine at 540.345.6300 or contact@citymagazineonline.com. |
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