You’re in the mood for:
Grecian Glory

The first Christos, which opened in 1988 on Nicollet Avenue, is where it all began. The taverna-like room is hung with live green plants and ornaments from the owners’ trips to the homeland. The St. Paul location occupies much of the ground floor of the Union Depot, softening the severe neoclassical setting with fairy lights and chandeliers.

The menu features classics like mousaka, dolmathes, tyropita, and the dramatic saganaki: melted Kasseri cheese flamed with brandy at the table. The sandwiches include some of the best falafel I’ve had in Minnesota. Not too hard, not too dry, not too greasy, it is indeed just right, served in a pita pocket with tabouli salad. The dip sampler is, as the menu boasts, a garlic blast. Save the scrumptious assortment of skordalia, hummus, tzatsiki, and melintzano-salata for dinner with friends—close friends—or risk gassing participants at afternoon meetings.

Biz Buzz: The St. Paul location offers a Greek buffet at lunch, which gets you in and out quickly. Christos also caters banquets offsite and at the Union Depot.

 

You’re in the mood for:
An Oasis

The Barbary Fig (720 Grand Avenue, St. Paul; 651-290-2085) is my new favorite getaway for middle eastern comfort food, served with love in a renovated Victorian home. With its sun-drenched patio and simple but satisfying meals, it makes you feel, as my dining partner said, “like you’ve gone somewhere else.”

In contrast to the gut-busting portion sizes found at many restaurants, Barbary Fig offers human-sized servings of warming and earthy tagines (a dish native to North Africa—savory, slow-cooked stews of meats and vegetables, cooked up in the sloping chimney-ed mini ovens that give the dish its name), refreshing salads, and mouth-filling bisteeyas (savory delights wrapped in pastry). Lamb-o-philes will come away dazzled, and the dessert list demonstrates what miraculous things can be done with a little rosewater, a bit of chocolate and honey, and maybe a sprinkling of lavender.

Biz Buzz: The mood at Barbary Fig is luxe-bohemian. The restful and artistic atmosphere would be a great place to take creatives and other adventurous types.

 

You’re in the mood for:
The Casbah—with Parking Garage

Saffron’s décor combines rich earth tones with the subdued gleam of fretted silver lamps to create the effect of, say, the lounge in a palace belonging to minor Persian royalty. The menu, which is organized into mezze (starters), small plates, and entrees, is full of surprises.

In one entree, West Coast salmon and East Coast clams harmonize in a tagine on a fennel variation. The vegetable bisteeya small plate is a phyllo pastry wrapped around root vegetables and accompanied by a yogurt-cilantro sauce and Portuguese piri-piri. The preserved tuna tartine small plate with its combination of curried egg salad and anise-touched tuna was a bewildering but exciting explosion of flavors that were maddeningly familiar yet exotic. The home-cured lamb bacon (used in the “BLT” with tomato ham, butter lettuce, and tarragon) is a stand-out on the bar menu.

Saffron introduced me to my favorite new spice—sumac. Not to be confused with the red fall foliage by the freeway (the North American variety is used in tanning leather—not so yummy), sumac berries are dried and then ground to make a coarse-grained spice with a tangy taste, sort of like lemon, but richer.

Biz Buzz: Saffron’s location near a 394 exit makes it a convenient destination for both downtown Minneapolis denizens and suburban diners, but the restaurant has recently stopped serving lunch.