Written by Mary Tutwiler
Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Sometimes life is a lot like art. Take last night. I was sitting at the bar at Pamplona with a friend, sipping on absinthe and he asked me how the anise flavored spirit, beloved by poets and painters, and banned as a hallucinogenic poison in the U.S. since 1912, had gotten back in circulation.

Sail across the Atlantic to be where you belong.

Mention mincemeat pies, and most folks wrinkle their noses in horror. “Meat and prunes,” I remember thinking as a child, a combination as frightening as liver and squash, which wound up on my dinner plate on terrible occasion. These days I love liver and squash (think grilled, still-pink calves’ liver with onions, and roasted butternut squash spiked with a bit of cumin, fennel seed and garlic). And I also have learned to love mince pies. But don’t even consider the mincemeat that comes out of a can; I think that’s what gave me the willies back when. Think dried currents, raisins, orange and lemon peel, apples, brown sugar, butter and brandy, and you’ve got more to do with sugar plums than with meat pasties.

Nidal Balbeisi is attempting to conquer the world the way all great tacticians do, through its belly. First he seduces you at Zeus, his Mid-Eastern flagship restaurant, with delectable baba ghanoush. Then he makes his shwarma sandwiches as quick and convenient as the ubiquitous burger at the multiple locations of his Zeus Express drive thru. Next, he brainwashes you with mind-bending margaritas at his Mexican cantina, Agave. Now, he’s planning the coup de gras with his newest culinary adventure — Italian fusion — at Trynd Café and Night Club. The location? Last week, Balbeisi bought Stanley Lerille’s laid back lunch and high octane disco, located in the former Masonic temple on Vermilion Street downtown.