All The News That's Fit To Eat

What do you know, we've got an Afghan market! Nabi Yari, an Afghan native who moved here from California, opened Marco Polo Market last Wednesday at 607 San Mateo NE (255-1325). The market is just a few doors down from the Mediterranean Café, the new but misleadingly named Moroccan restaurant. Most interestingly, the market includes a small bakery where they make traditional Afghan bread, a puffy flatbread (no, puffy and flat are not mutually exclusive) about 33 inches long and 13 inches wide. What do you do with a big, long, flat bread? Well, you put stuff on it. What kind of stuff? Stuff you find at the Afghan market, duh. Marco Polo stocks Afghan and Iranian spices, rice, juices, yogurt drinks and cheeses. It's open from 9:30 a.m. until about 6:30 p.m. every day.

Little Anita's at Menaul and University was nearly destroyed by a fire two weeks ago. District manager Phil Hopper says that workers were making some repairs to the restaurant's roof when the rolled roofing material they were using started smoldering, leading to a fire that spread quickly over the roof. Luckily, the restaurant wasn't very busy at the time and all of the customers and employees were able to get out safely. According to Hopper, “the building is pretty old and with all that dry wood, it went pretty quick.” Little Anita's had been leasing the building, but Hopper says the damage is likely to be covered by insurance and that they plan to rebuild. Although the building was not completely burned, there was enough damage that it will take at least three months for them to complete work. In the meantime, Little Anita's fans will have to make do with the four other locations.

Go drink wine at Scalo (Central and Carlisle, 255-8781) on Monday nights. I happened to drop in for dinner last Thursday only to kick myself for not knowing that you can buy any bottle of wine on the menu for half price on Mondays. Half price makes the wine affordable enough to try twice as many, so round up a group of buddies, designate a driver and bottoms up!

Glenn Haywood called recently to let me know I'd make a mistake in the “Chowtown” listing for his restaurant Jamaica Jamaica (Central and Carlisle, 255-5381), which is open on Fridays. I had mistakenly said they were closed Fridays and Saturdays. In fact, because of religious beliefs, the restaurant is closed on Saturday nights, so get over there on Fridays and get your fill of jerked chicken or one of their many (shockingly!) tasty vegetarian entrées.