Owner - Hassan Kaisoum
104 Emmet St N
Charlottesville, VA 22903
104 Emmet St N
Charlottesville, VA 22903
Telephone 434-244-2486
@ Barracks Road (across from the Fountain)(where the Gaslight used to be when I was its manager) (now a Five Guys, which will never match The Riverside)
11am til 9pm Monday-Thursday / 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday / 3:30pm Sunday
11am til 9pm Monday-Thursday / 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday / 3:30pm Sunday
Thank you, Hassan Kaisoum!
My very beautiful daughter Jessie Jane and I went to Aromas Cafe for a special occasion lunch ... I found the quality on a par with the last meal I had upstairs at the C&O ... and slightly better than the last meal I had downstairs. Jessie Jane and I fought over the C&O's food too, perhaps a bit more than we did at Aromas ... portions might have been larger at Aromas? (necessitating less squabbling over morsels?) Lunch for two with baklava and the chocolate dome dessert, the Moroccan Merguez Tagine, triple mezze and tzadziki came to I think $50 plus tip, or 60.00 all in. So yes, it was expensive but on the other hand it was also ... Extremely Terrific. I'm betting the rent is still really steep at Barracks Road these days. The rent about killed The Gaslight when I was its manager. That was long ago, but I think it is still difficult to make a profit on a small house (with only 50 seats) when you don't own the building.
Possibly three people could have done very well on the same amount of food Jessie Jane and I squabbled over so happily? Three of us would have meant some real competition for tidbits and crumbs, however, and we would have needed two of the Chocolate Dome desserts. And the Merguez sausage in the Tagine would have disappeared in a trice -- probably before I got my fair share.
However, in rating Aroma's version of the cuisine bourgeoise of the Med, like many other people, I started from memories of the many very ordinary mediocre Greek/Mediterranean restaurants that do such a passable job of selling lackluster (and often canned) items for top dollar to people who probably neither know nor care much what they're eating. Maybe I liked the lamb twang of the Moroccan Merguez Tagine so much because it was authentically Berber or North African more than Eastern Mediterranean?
Can't we get a spit with some real lamb roast turning on it? Pretty please? Mr. Kaisoum? Maybe for parties? or special occasions?
Anyone who reads this is welcome to review my notions about why individual differences in tasting ability offer an adequate explanation for why most restaurants don't find it profitable even to attempt serving food as sublime as that Moroccan Merguez Tagine Jessie Jane and I loved. We ate every last lentil. It was not overpriced. I wanted the shrimp and white bean cassoulet, but got outvoted by the birthday girl. I will get some the next time it appears on the menu. I promise.
The mezze, also, were not overpriced. More importantly, they struck me as being the best I ever ate in any restaurant. Great Baba Ganouj. Superb falafel. Scrumptious tzadziki.
Cheap, however, Aromas is not. It did not seem full on the Saturday late lunch hour of around 2:00 pm ... Barracks Road might probably perhaps not be the place most people would think to go for an outstanding but relatively high-priced lunch? Perhaps we missed the rush? A reputation for pricey-ness sometimes makes it hard to fill seats no matter how good the food is. That said, Peter Chang seemed steep, too -- worth it to me but perhaps not to the others in my party -- so I'm blaming the rent. And I haven't tried Aromas at dinner yet.
Comparing prices seems silly, but lunch for two at the Nordstrom Cafe in Short Pump, my most-frequented nibble these days (because it's not just very good but also very reliable), comes in at just over $30 total including tip, though it's possible to feed two there for under $20 including coffee and dessert (and they do serve a "secret" breakfast menu ALL DAY.) Nordstrom Cafe is worth a visit any time you're in Short Pump. Coffee's great too, and bottomless. After lunch you can slide down to Trader Joe's to pick up some triple cream French cheese and organic California wines for a price so reasonable you might be glad you drove to Richmond. I hear they're opening a store in Charlottesville this year. Keep fingers crossed? (though alas, I hear it will be North of the City -- Wegman's, I hear, will go for a 29 South location, which I think will be easier to get to. -- Christian Gehman
