Keeping it in the Family at Kebab Cafe
A rice plate with grilled shrimp, vegetables and fresh tzatziki sauce. Photos by Jessica Ashley Silva
Tucked away in the southeast corner of the Valley West shopping center is an innocuous little restaurant with a big following. More often than not, there’s a line out the door and the phone is busy when you try calling in your order, but it’s worth the wait. In the 28 years Kebab Cafe’s (5000 Valley West Blvd. Suite 19, Arcata) been open, it’s become like a friend to many of us, familiar, comforting and reliable in its delicious offerings of Mediterranean cuisine. In short, they’ve perfected the holiest of restaurant attributes: consistency.
When I moved to Humboldt 11 years ago, Kebab Cafe was one of the first restaurants I went to. It was instrumental in helping me turn a new leaf; as a person with a picky palate with an aversion to trying new things (especially sauces), my aspirations as a foodie were pretty self-limiting. Lamb meat? No way. Cucumber and yogurt? Forget it. Grape leaves? What am I, a fancy rabbit? Little did I know, Kebab Cafe would give me a series of firsts that expanded my culinary horizons and opened the floodgates of trying new things.
My first dish from the cafe — still my favorite in all its simplicity — was the rice special. You start with a plate of rice, then add your choice of freshly grilled skewers, including shrimp with veggies, mushrooms, lamb, beef, pork or chicken. For a lot of us picky eaters, rice is a safe go-to, but what changed everything for me was the tzatziki sauce. A cool and creamy Greek yogurt base mixed with macerated cucumber bits takes a simple rice dish to a whole new level. The tzatziki was a gateway drug that led me to more new-to-me items on the menu.
Here’s a confession: Despite having visited both Greece and Turkey before moving to Humboldt, I’d never tried a gyro. Kebab Cafe graced me with the first of many gyros to come, a long overdue introduction which led to a full-on romance. Their warm, soft pitas are filled with freshly roasted and carved gyro meat, given a generous dollop of tzatziki sauce, and topped with cabbage, cucumber and tomato. The contrast between the warm and cold plays nicely on the senses, as does the soft pita and the crunch of the raw veggies. For a few years, a gyro was all I ordered. Eventually, I learned how to spice it up — literally.
Despite Mexican genes, I have never been a fan of spicy heat. But as I watched literally every person I ate with at Kebab pouring on the cafe’s housemade habanero sauce, I started getting bold. I finally asked for a squeezy bottle of the orange stuff and tried it. Even a fraction of a drop on each bite brought the heat, but it just tasted so good. All these years later, I’m admittedly only up to two whole drops per bite, but believe me, it’s a feat for this former spice-phobe. I love it so much, I always keep a bottle at home now.
What I love about this place is that I know every time I order a gyro (or anything else on the menu) it’s going to look and taste the exact same way each time, no matter who is cooking that day. Ashkim Beyzade, daughter of owner Simon Beyzade and the heir to managing the family restaurant, attributes their success over the past nearly 30 years to the consistency her father instilled in the business. By building from family recipes from Simon’s cultural background as a Turkish Cypriot, and by having the oversight and support of Ashkim’s mother and siblings working in the store over the years, the kitchen operates like a well-oiled machine with no surprises when you order your favorites time and time again.
Sticking with homemade menu items helps maintain the control the Beyzades have in their kitchen. As Ashkim tells me, “Our meats are cut and skewered fresh each day, all of our sauces are from homemade family recipes, and we soak and blend our beans for falafels.” As their most traditional offerings, Ashkim recommends new customers come in to try the falafels and the gyros. “We import the essentials,” she continues, “but almost everything is made from scratch.”
One such import is the halloumi cheese, a cheese worth shouting from the rooftops in praise. If you’re even remotely a fan of cheese, and especially if you’re a fan of fried cheese, this appetizer is for you. Halloumi is a soft sheep’s milk cheese with a high melting point. Kebab Cafe serves it in an order of three slices, fried to perfection each and every time, with a side of sauce. The crisp edges, the squeaky cheese, the cool tzatziki — they hit your senses from all angles and those sacred few bites leave a divine impression that keeps you coming back for more. Hurry over and get some, but you might have to fight me for it.
Kebab Cafe
5000 Valley West Blvd., Suite 19, Arcata
(707) 826-2121
kebabcafearcata.com