November 2, 2010
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This Oasis Is a Dream Come True
When Madison Avenue produces a “follow your bliss and open a restaurant story,” usually for a credit card company, things work out magnificently well. Middle aged families quickly transform dives into palaces, doing all the remodeling with smiles on their faces. On opening night, their place is packed with glamorous couples, toasting the owner-chef with champagne while his wife-hostess pops corks.
Sometimes things work out well in real life but never quite so quickly. Sometimes they don’t at all. Restaurants are a brutal business. The Des Moines Register’s restaurant critic recently published a list of the places that had gone out of business after she had reviewed them. It totaled 106 restaurants and only counted those she had actually reviewed in the last twelve years. That’s nearly nine per year. When you subtract all the “preliminary visits” that often replace reviews in the Register, and also subtract repeat reviews of the same restaurant, you’re in the ball park assuming that around 30 new places have been reviewed each year. That would mean roughly 30 per cent have been going down and that’s out of a superior restaurant gene pool. The Register has barely covered the lower rent segment of the industry where we often hang out hat.
The last two years, restaurants have been opening and closing so quickly that some readers have lectured us about “doing a better job of investigating the long term financial viability of a place before recommending it.” I imagine some bankers have heard that too. Yet the dream lives on. Last week we reviewed two new places that had opened in venues deserted by multiple ventures. Add The Oasis Ristorante to their number. It’s a Mom & Pop café that last month moved into the cozy underground confines long inhabited by La Trattoria and later by two other, short-lived cafés. The last one had covered an historic brick wall with palm thatch and built a bamboo Tiki bar. Mom & pop Levitt uncovered the walls and painted the bar. The place, on the Historical Register, is far more charming with this restored, minimalist look. It also fits the restaurant’s character better. Jeff Levitt is a middle aged guy who loves to cook. He developed his palate on the road, not in culinary school. His family has traveled extensively in the Mediterranean region and lived in Israel. The restaurant shares the Levitts’ bliss for the foods they love.
The Oasis menu features familiar Mediterranean items executed with fresh ingredients.
A gyros delivered meat that was both crispy and moist, fresh tomatoes, onions and lots of home made tzatziki (yogurt based sauce) on hefty pita. Potato salad was made with large, thin sliced potatoes and lots of creamy dressing.
Tabbouleh was delightfully light with fresh lemon and mint dressing its bulger wheat, tomatoes, cucumbers and onions.
A surf & turf variation brought two perfectly seared, rare lamb chops and a large seared scallop in a balsamic reduction, for just $9! Kefta kebabs were Persian style – resembling a grilled meat loaf more than cubed skewer meat. Among other menu highlights, stuffed mushrooms, chicken schnitzel and onion rings were all freshly breaded, chocolate covered strawberries were stuffed with minted goat cheese, and salads smelled of freshly sliced onions and tomatoes. Lunches were priced $5 – $9 and complete dinners ranged from $9 (chicken Parmasan, pasta of the day) to $15 (creamy style steak de Burgo, seared tuna and salmon). Beer and wine were available.
Bottom Line – The Oasis provides refreshing bargains and scratch made food in one of the city’s unique spaces.
Side Dishes
Living History Farms offers German Harvest Dinner through Nov. 28. $50 per person , 378-5286.The Oasis
207 4th St., 288-4502
Mon. – Fri. 11 a.m. – 2 p.m., Mon. – Thurs. 5 p.m. – 10 p.m., Fri. – Sat. 5 p.m. – midnight
