Schwarma Queen, 1.28.10

This is what might be written about a cafe that I might have started in the hopefully near future, had I gone with the third name I came up with.....

Why do they call themselves Schwarma Queen if they don’t serve Schwarma? I have eaten Mediterranean street food in Paris, New York and San Francisco and seem to recall clearly enough that at each of those grease-rich eateries there exists like a shrine the vertical rotisserie of sliced meat. Like the swirling cylinder outside of your small town barber shop, this glistening sword of roasted animal beckons to the sandwich searcher and the street passerby who walks through its smell.

Now that I think about it, maybe I didn’t miss the meat tower too much on my first visit to the Queen. She has replaced the meat stick and the overarching dirty factor that usually accompanies it in casual falafel joints with a sense of veggie clean. The menu is fresh, healthy and makes your mouth pucker in the best possible way.

Upon entering SQ in the afternoon you are immediately treated to crisp, savory pita chips that have been brushed with olive oil, dusted with house made Z’atar (the sumac-hyssop-sesame seed spice blend), and oven baked. It’s lucky they give you this snack while you’re waiting in line because it’s the only thing that keeps me from reaching my hand out to grab a beet cube sitting on a mound of chopped veggies like pillaged rubies. These chopped veggie salads are the jewel in Schwarma Queen’s crown: the cauliflower and white cabbage salad died yellow with cumin; the house-made pickled for one week cucumbers; these can be chosen as toppings for a falafel sandwich ($7), or made part of a combo salad plate (4 salads for $8; 6 for $10).

It was cold out so I ordered the plate of rice and lentils topped with roasted chicken and fresh spinach and then slopped with a deluge of homemade lentil soup. The steam that wafted as I mixed it up and delighted in the sweetness of the aromatic soup melted me into my chair.

I noticed more than one diner return to the counter for a second falafel pita after the first was gone. My personal strategy for the next time I return will be to buy a falafel upon entry, order a pint of Boddington’s from the beer list, and follow up later on with falafel numero dos. That’s my idea of royalty.