Share Email Print RSS

Lebanese in the Bottom

“I hate computers. Everything is programmed,” says Rusty Fallen, a warm woman with the prerequisite Southern accent needed to pull off calling strangers “honey” on the telephone.

“I worked with computers for many years. And I just hate them.”

So, should you look for a website for Aziza’s, it’s not up yet, and Rusty is having nothing to do with it. Don’t ask her to email you a menu and don’t look for her on Twitter. She’s too busy and she’s unconcerned with the cyber world. She’s the second generation of a Richmond restaurant family.

What Rusty is interested in is good food.

Aziza’s on Main, located in Shockoe Bottom, is named for the materfamilias of the Fallen clan, Aziza, who along with her husband, cooked at the family’s original Lebanese-influenced restaurant, the Henrico Inn, also in Shockoe Bottom, 60 years ago. In the ‘60s, Aziza and her husband Philip, left the Bottom for McGuire Park, where they established a pharmacy and fountain business with Rusty’s pharmacist brothers.

Step into Aziza’s today and you walk into a triptych – enter by the deli counter, look to your left, a pharmacy; to your right, a dining room – each panel of Aziza’s has a distinct function.

Behind the deli counter, find Billy Fallen, third generation and the original owner of Billy Bread. To his left is Uncle Johnny’s contribution to the three-paneled operation, the McGuire Park Pharmacy. To Billy’s right, a jewel-box dining room with exposed brick, snuggly two-top tables and a bar that whispers of dinner service, I hope.

Currently, Aziza’s closes at 6 p.m. on weekdays and after brunch on weekends.

The food is a simple and wholesome mash-up of Lebanese mezze, Southern-style deli salads, and sandwiches, with plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. 

The Roasted Vegetable Sandwich, $8, eggplant, squash, portabella, and red bell pepper, with lettuce and Roma tomato, served on homemade bread, is both smoky and pleasantly salty and is served with a simply-dressed salad of fresh greens with lemon juice and EVOO. The Turkey & Sharp Cheddar Sandwich, $8.40, consisted of thinly sliced turkey on Flour Garden bread and comes with the same salad and olives

Brunch here is casual and surprisingly, calm. The service is spot-on.

Many restaurants serve egg dishes, salads and sandwiches on the weekends, but few care enough to buy Manakin-towne greens or high-quality oil in which to fry an egg. Aziza’s Shrimp & Crab Griddlecake, fried egg & tomato sauce, $10, is substantial. The rich seafood, incandescent with egg yolk, is dotted with house-made tomato sauce. This dish, along with a Mimosa or Shrimp Bloody Mary cocktizer (cocktail + appetizer) will make you forget the nearly impenetrable Sunday brunch at nearby Millie’s. Richmond needs another brunch spot and I hope that Aziza’s does not follow the new-restaurant trend of giving up on brunch after the first year or so of operation.

What I like most about Aziza’s is its Holy Trinity: olive oil, garlic and lemon juice. Most every dish in the deli case incorporates one of these three items. Someone will have to let me know how the Southern-style chicken and potato salad are, because I can’t bring myself to not order the Lebanese specialties that neighbor these cold salad standards.
 
The hummous, a traditional blend of chick pea, tahini, lemon and olive oil, is smoother than a Bernardo Daddi brushstroke; no one element of its three ingredients overwhelms the others. The Cous-Cous is moist and delightful, made a complete protein with the addition of chick peas, red kidneys, black and white beans, and chummily dressed with lemon, thyme and olive oil, the addition of which enlivens the starches.

The more substantial, hot items from the deli case include grape leaf rolls and koosa. The koosa, stuffed squash with beef, rice, cinnamon, mint and tomatoes, a heady infusion of spice, meat, fruit and herb, makes a substantial lunch with a side of green beans and feta and liffuts, pickled turnips, made both spicy with jalapenos and sweet with beets.

Dessert choices are homemade and plentiful.

The crème puff , a rich pastry crème stuffed choux drizzled with a sensuous chocolate glaze, is a house specialty and the key lime pie, made by a family friend, is airy and cheesecake-like with a crumbly crust.

The only criticism I have of Aziza’s is a greedy one. I want more. I hope the owners will dig through their family’s recipe album and offer more Lebanese dishes and extend their hours to include dinner. And, if someone wants to help Rusty out with a website, I wouldn’t mind that either.