Cafe Natasha

Me:

Hey, I have a great idea!  Gene's new job is proving to be a great way of discovering all the fantastic places to dine in St. Louis.  There really is a plethora of choice from tacos at midnight to pho-sion.  Let's make our New Year's Resolution to try at least 12 new restaurants this year.

Restaurant Gods:

We shall do all in our immense and vast, but largely futile,  power to defeat your plans!

If you've been reading along you know how difficult it was to find Restaurant #1.  Pro-tip, don't think you're just going to find a late night eat on New Year's Day in the Lou, even if it is Friday night.  But I did, eventually, prevail against the Restaurant Gods and found a delicious Titan of rebellion in Three Kings Public House.

This time it was 5 o'clock on a Tuesday on the third week of January.  We had plans to attend the Blues game and it was the last day I could use the full value of a Groupon I'd purchased to Lucky Buddha.  I was excited Pho Sho (see what I did there).  “Heeeeyyyyy, this place looks dark but it's 4:58 and they don't open until 5:00... but dark???”  Sign says stay away fools.  Actually the sign, written in pen, on a piece of printer paper, and taped haphazardly to the window said "closed for the holiday".  Yo, it's not even Chinese New Year yet and your facebook not only says you're open but the last post from you was on December 27 (not a typo Twenty SEVENTH) saying you were closed for Christmas.  Hmmmmm..... Me thinks Buddha not lucky.

All amped for Pho, Gene charts a course to Pho Grand, a place he delivers from pretty frequently.  It's facebook page shows it's closed but that can't be right.  Facebook is right.  Pho Grand, along with a mess of other places that should totally be open on a Tuesday, are also dark, dark, dark.  I shake my fist at the Restaurant gods. Then my eyes sparkle like Ralphie's when he saw the Red Rider in the window of Higbee's Department store.  Among the dark windows were twinkling beacons of hope with all manner of Middle Eastern, African, and Asian eats.  And then there it was Cafe Natasha!  A friend mentioned this place to me after mentioning that I was excited to try some Persian delicacies that my cousin's new wife promised to make if we ever got together again.

Cafe Natasha and Natasha's Gin room are set in a corner on S. Grand Avenue and seem pretty unassuming  from the outside.  If the door didn't say they served Persian food I'd assume an odd combination of sandwiches and Martini's were the specialties.  Upon entering and seeing white table clothes set at tables with high rise black tufted booths I felt immediately under dressed in my Blues Hoodie.  The Gin Room with its well stocked and romantically lit bar are what you see upon entering, and the place seemed pretty small until the hostess asked if we wanted to sit in the back room. It opened up to several more, but still intimate, tables and more black tufted booths.

Our waitress let us know that for happy hour there was an all vegan hummus bar with falafel.  It happens to be gluten free too if you care about that kind of thing.  Well, that decided that for me.  Gene went with a chicken and koobideh combo platter.  We also ordered some pickled vegetables and some seer torshi preserved garlic.  Our waitress told us the garlic was better with food rather than as an appetizer on it's own.  I also took advantage of the Gin Room and ordered a dainty drink called the Bitter Sweet that came in a crystal punch glass and tasted just as dainty as its presentation.  Floral but not flowery.  It was delicious.

The pickled vegetables and garlic were powerful and something that should be tried.  The garlic boasts of being aged in vinegar for 7 years, and that's what it tastes like.  You might love them, you might like them, and you might loathe them.  I am on the side of “like” while Gene was closer to the side of “loathe.”  The vegetables were great as a topping for pita and hummus.  They both were decidedly “pickley” but also had a unique kind of tart that's unexpected.  My suspicion is that if you're looking for a real deal pickled veg and garlic, this is it.

The hummus bar had 2 kinds of rice, crispy and fluffy falafel, curry, sauteed mushrooms, hummus, basil tomatoes that were a fresh and slightly tart perfection.  They were great on top of everything and by themselves.  It also had a Pomegranate eggplant kind of baba ganoush, and a cream sauce for whatever you want to put a cream sauce on.  If you're there on a Tuesday and aren't strictly carnivorous, I'd seriously advise getting the hummus bar and a trying a unique and  expertly crafted cocktail.

On the other hand you should also bring someone who IS strictly carnivorous with you so you can try some of the entree they ordered.  Thank you Gene.  The chicken and koobideh were both super tender and delicious.  He was pretty generous with the table staple that I suspected was sumac based, but it wasn't out of place.  His salad was fresh and came with a tart yogurt based dressing that [“reminded me” unless you really can used “reminisced” this way] reminisced of tzatziki and worked well on the kabobs too.

All in all it was really good food and really good service.  The actual Natasha greeted more than one table as if they were long time loyal customers and friends.  Actually, I think we were the ONLY table that didn't seem to have a long established friendship with Natasha, both the restaurant and the person, who I think is the daughter of the original owners.

I have no idea if the food is authentic, but friends tell me it's pretty close.  Let's be honest though, if it's good, do we care?  I'll be back to Cafe Natasha, maybe I'll see you there.

Update:  

Since writing this I ventured back to Cafe Natasha for a late night coffee and baklava with Gene.  If you have a love affair with coffee then you'll want to try Turkish coffee some day.  I've found a couple of places that really do it right, and Cafe Natasha is one of them.  This method (boiling the grounds in the coffee over and over until it foams and falls) creates a strong and rich cup of brew with a sooty bottom layer.  This time I opted for Arabic, which is the same coffee but with the addition of sweetened condensed milk.  My coffee and Gene's had a distinctly floral note.  Mine even had a cardamom pod floating in it which stayed with me in a pleasant way.  The baklava was good.  It didn't fall into the sins of most baklava in that it wasn't too sweet, just right on the flavor balance.  It did want a little something from the texture, but we were the very last customers of the day and it's not a made to order item.