Café Apollonia's old beer and wine license, once with some curious bottles from Croatia, is no longer in effect, though the bar is still there with immigrant men watching sports or CNN. Until the license is back in place, the most interesting drink is Organic African Nectar ($3) in a teabag, which brews up to an exotic, vanilla scented tisane.
For dessert you may never get any farther than qumeshtor ($4.50), the Albanian answer to galactobouriko. How much custard pie in filo wrappers and sweet syrup do you want? More than you intended to eat, but possibly not the entire portion. A compote of fresh blackberries, blueberries, and strawberries ($5) was rather good, despite the winter season. Brownie sundae ($5), while aimed at the unadventurous, will hit the target square-on. The brownie is excellent, and the vanilla ice cream makes up in quantity what it lacks in concentration.
The room, despite militant nationalistic redecoration, is calm and peaceful. (Hey, you're trying to run an Albanian restaurant on a street named after the capital of enemy Serbia; you can't pretend it doesn't matter.) A pair of black lights in one corner hints at the disco dark hours of the ethnic soul. The music is cheerful enough Albano-pop. The tables are covered with oilcloths, rather handsome ones. Since this is the same chef as Café Appolonia, it's only a matter of time before the return of those amazing polenta triangles, roast meats in yogurt sauces, and vegetable tourli.
Service at Arbri Café was decent on two slow nights, more in sync with the kitchen on the later visit, as one might expect. We know what that kitchen is capable of; it just needs more customers to stimulate the memory and creativity.
Robert Nadeau can be reached at robtnadeau@aol.com.
