Pomegranate

Most people think of vodka when they think of Russians, but Pomegranate will introduce you to magical new sets of spice combinations familiar to our friends across the Pacific. Located in North Park, Pomegranate offers a cozy atmosphere and filling food for a relaxing — but also culturally interesting — dinner. Once inside, parking can be a little frustrating at first, as there is no restaurant-owned lot, but street parking is plentiful along the surrounding blocks.

When you walk in, Pomegranate’s dimmed lighting will barely allow you to make out families dining, couples on dates and business meetings in progress. All the tables have beautifully unique lamps — one lamp even uses a cowboy figurine as a lamp stand. The most noticeable decorations in the restaurant are handwritten messages from past customers that cover the walls, ranging from Russian sayings to food recommendations and even a drawing of a dog smoking a cigar.

After you’ve been seated, a server will bring you a bread basket with garlic-flavored olive oil to dip and green, thyme-flavored butter to spread. While you fill up on bread and deceptively delicious green butter, Pomegranate’s salad sampler platter (price varies depending on party size) is a great group appetizer that features Russian coleslaw, cabbage salad and a potato salad, among others. This will work for those friends who want to order every last item on the menu, but can’t afford to do so.

Three dishes at Pomegranate are ideal to introduce the amateur epicurean to the Russian palate: the borscht, a beet soup with beef ($9); the stroganoff, beef cooked in a sour cream sauce and served over pasta ($17) and khachapuri, a Georgian cheese pie ($7.50). Luckily for vegetarians, the borscht and stroganoff dishes can be made vegetarian or vegan (meat is substituted with mushrooms), and the Khachapuri is vegetarian already.

At first, the vegetarian stroganoff ($14) looks to be a steamed vegetable salad with some sour cream, but laying at the bottom of the bowl is a concoction of vegetable juices and Pomegranate’s “secret” house mix of Russian spices, in which thyme is a prominent flavor. It comes with a side of rice and a baked potato for added starch.

For meat eaters looking for something more adventurous, the golubtsi, two cabbage rolls stuffed with ground meat and herbs ($15.50), will fill you up — and then some. The rolls, which are smothered in a thick cheese sauce, take up the entire plate.

Before you enter a food coma, though, try a dessert, namely, the Babushka Surprise ($7) — a honey-baked apple stuffed with dried fruits and walnuts and served with fresh plum and apple slices and a scoop of ice cream. If you want to go with something untraditional, try the Toad Sweat ice cream ($6). It’s not made of toads, but it will make you sweat like one; its vanilla ice cream with cayenne pepper-infused chocolate sauce to make it spicy.

Pomegranate doesn’t just serve great food; it also provides a wonderful environment. Before you leave, ask the bar for a Sharpie and write a little something on the wall. Maybe a new customer will discover it, or maybe it will remind you of your last visit for the next time you give into your cravings for Russian-Georgian cuisine.