Alhambra Palace
The obvious question for anyone involved is: what were you thinking? Aubriot couldn’t be reached for his take, and Alhambra Palace owner Naser Rustom declined to be interviewed. But general manager Fareed Nobahar, a former restaurant owner who ran the front of the house at the Signature Room, provided some background. When Nobahar signed on in the fall of 2006, two years of planning had gone into the restaurant and it was under construction on the site of an old mechanics’ shop at the western end of the Randolph Street corridor. The idea, he says, was to create a museumlike setting for Rustom’s rapidly expanding collection of artifacts purchased on trips to the Middle East and North Africa. As the collection grew, so did the project, from one story to two, with a price tag of “more than $5 million but less than $10 million,” Nobahar says. Rustom, a Palestinian-born physician who operates several clinics, also owned the Wicker Park Middle Eastern hot spot Souk, but closed it last year to concentrate on the new project.
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The revised menu instituted May 25 is still evolving, but in addition to hummus, baba ghanoush, dolmas, and other standard appetizers, there are specialties such as lebna, thick, garlic-infused yogurt; zaalouck, a spicy eggplant and tomato dip; grilled shrimp chermoula, marinated in a paste of cilantro, red chile, cumin, and garlic; and Tunisian brik, fried square pastries stuffed with tuna and egg seasoned with saffron and lemon. Condiments like spicy harissa and a sweet mint sauce are made in-house.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): New chef Daniel Wright and a new appetizer, shrimp chermoula, a Alhambra Palace photo by Eric Futran.
