The Honolulu Advertiser
Friday, August 5, 2005
ll/article?AID=/20050805/ENT04/508050317/1131/ENT
Downtown’s Europa dishes up Armenian delights
By Helen Wu
Advertiser Restaurant Critic
Frank and Margarit Lavoie, owners of Kafe Europa, offer
Armenian/Russian style food with homemade pastries baked by
Margarit. Her mother, Kara Mnatsakanyan, right, helps make the daily
specials. Photos by DEBORAH BOOKER | The Honolulu Advertiser
KAFE EUROPA
Rating: 3 1/2 forks
Tardus Financial Plaza
801 Alakea St., No. 101, at Queen Street
230-9941
Summer hours: 7 a.m.-4:30 p.m. weekdays
Starting in September, also open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays
Clockwise from top left: raspberry-almond tart, Armenian style baklava,
homemade cream puff, okra appetizer and fava-bean salad.
One midsummer evening in Manhattan, a friend and I swooned as our
waiter, Moon, and the rest of the staff at the famed Russian Samovar
restaurant treated us like czarinas. Under the rosy glow of red
lanterns, they covered our table with dishes of basturma (Armenian
dried beef); a royal Baltic fish platter of smoked salmon and sturgeon,
salmon caviar and herring accompanied by plate-sized blini; steaming
cabbage-stuffed pirozhok (savory turnover) and cold borscht.
Vodkas flavored in-house with pear, plum and ginger had us wanting
to try every single one. Russian tea sweetened with cherry preserves
provided a warm and deeply satisfying end to the meal just as the
live music reached a dramatic crescendo.
And thanks to a tip from a reader named Neal suggesting that I check
out a place called Kafe Europa, I’m not going into complete withdrawal
back on home ground. This downtown spot is a grab-n-go coffee stand
unlike the usual sit-down eateries I go to, but it has the basics that
help get me through any hard day – good coffee, sweet pastries and
hearty food. It’s comparable to one of those quality quickie places
that are in most big cities but rare here, and I’m not talking about
okazuyas, lunch wagons or Korean plate-lunch joints.
Kafe Europa has a decidedly unique feel, probably because owners
Margarit and Frank Lavoie aren’t from these parts. Margarit, from
Armenia, and Frank, originally a Bostonian, met when Frank was a
Peace Corps volunteer in Armenia. After visiting Frank’s brother,
who was stationed at Kane’ohe Bay, they traded Boston’s winters for
Hawai’i’s eternal summers. Without any background in the restaurant
business, they are now serving a small selection of homemade Eastern
European foods and tempting desserts to the downtown business crowd.
I asked Margarit how she would describe Armenian food, and she
answered, “It is very close to Greek and Mediterranean food, and
because Armenia was part of the Soviet Union we had an influence
from Russia.”
You’ll find an assortment of seemingly eclectic items on Kafe
Europa’s menu.
On softly warmed pita bread you can get filling sandwiches of beef
kebab ($5.50), vegetarian roasted eggplant with feta ($4.99), or
tender, roasted Australian free range lamb ($6.25). Norwegian smoked
salmon ($5.95 including side salad) on a freshly baked croissant is
another alternative. If this is all too foreign, choose a standard
ham or turkey with melted provolone cheese ($5.25, with side salad)
on a croissant.
But it’s the uncommon dishes that attract me. Daily special plates
include a free can of soda and a salad, and most arrive with basmati
rice – a nice change from the usual sticky kind. Tuesday’s Uzbeki
pilaf ($6.50) comes with hummus and pita bread. This saffron rice
studded with lamb morsels is faintly sweet with carrots. Russian beef
stroganoff ($6.95), moist beef strips baked in a rich sour cream sauce,
is a sell-out favorite on Wednesday for those tired of beef stew.
As for the soup of the day ($4.25; $6.50 with mini-salad and bread
slice), I’ve tried borscht, chicken-mushroom and a pinto bean. None of
them left me hungry, although I wished they were hotter. I usually eye
the deli case for cold appetizers ($3 to $4.50) that come pre-packed
in 8-ounce plastic tubs.
These meze-type snacks such as baba gannouj, lentil salad and
beet salad are almost meals in themselves, and a great option for
vegetarians.
Another treat is cold-pressed, preservative-free Noyan brand
juices from Armenia ($1.99 small, $2.49 medium, $2.99 large,
$4.99 carton; natural pomegranate without added sugar is $2.50,
$3, $3.50, $6.50). Two flavors I’ve never encountered before are
sea-buckthorn that tastes like a zingy, anti-oxidant, power-packed
passion-orange-guava and a refreshingly tart, vitamin C-loaded
Cornelian cherry that resembles a guava concoction.
Kafe Europa’s family recipes extend to its sweets. Although Margarit’s
mother, Kara, assists behind the counter and with some of the cooking,
Margarit does all the baking, which she learned from her grandmother.
Every day, she turns out light-as-a feather pastries that practically
float away as customers come in requesting baklava ($2), napoleons
($2) and tiramisu ($2.50). Occasionally, there are delicate cream
puffs ($2) with a hazelnut glaze that caused me to have a temporary
memory loss about Beard-who and Coco-what. Illy-brand espresso drinks
alone or combined with a pastry can jump-start those suffering from
sluggishness.
Despite not having any tables or parking, Kafe Europa does have
lunchtime lines. Around noon, it’s practically impossible to find a
seat in the Tardus Financial building with the competition from all
the other eateries.
However, Kafe Europa’s reasonably priced, homey food, along with
Frank and Margarit’s genuine, old-world hospitality, work like an
Eastern European charm to keep regulars returning.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress