Dining- Safta

First there was the hype.  A good friend of mine had bought the Safta cookbook.  She swore she would only eat Safta 7 days a week, 3 meals a day, for the rest of her life.  It was that good.  We decided to check it out for our anniversary the following week.  The entire week before going, everyone, friends, coworkers, strangers on the street were talking about Safta it seemed.
“Have you tried Safta?”  “You have to try Safta,”  “Blah, blah, blah, blah, SAFTA, blah, blah, blah.”  The night before our anniversary, I woke up to a soft whisper…SSSssaafta….  Riding into my very own bedroom on a unicorn was a handsome bartender, shirtless in his Safta signature apron with a Crystal’s Light on a silver tray…..Ssssaaafftaaa.
 
Could it be this good?  Our expectations were high needless to say.  We went, we drank, we ate, (too much of both) and pretty much loved it.  I must admit though that it took one more visit to love, love it.  The second time we even ate the bar, something I generally don't prefer; but well, as you can tell I love their bar and bartenders so it was amazing.
 
I did have the Crystal’s Light and while the bartender was fully clothed and no unicorns were present, it was still magical.  It has many of my favorites (vodka) and things I didn’t even know I like (elderflower).  Putting our faith in said bartender, we let him direct us on how much and what food to order.  One mistake of our first experience was filling up on too many sides (salatim section of menu) and hummus dishes, both served with their infamous pita bread.  The pita…. it’s easily the best I have ever had.  With no willpower when it comes to carbs, I learned however, we needed to pace ourselves to enjoy some of the larger dishes too.  The staff is generous with the perfectly cooked pita and it’s easy to accept their never-ending offering of the warm bread. 

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This time around, we started with the muhammara and the lamb ragu hummus, served of course with generous pita.  The lamb ragu hummus is arguably the most popular and its easy to see why - the velvety, smooth hummus mixed with the flavorful lamb topping can only be described as delightful.  I could easily have eaten this for my meal,  but I would have missed out enjoying the larger dishes.  Pacing ourselves with our pita this time, we next enjoyed the crispy eggplant (the only time I have ever seen my husband eat eggplant), and then ended with the Pomegranate Braised Lamb Shank.  Considering that the man behind Safta named his parent company Pomegranate Hospitality, you just know this dish is going to be good.  Paired with a whipped feta and fresh peaches, what could go wrong?  Nothing.  Sadly, on both visits we did not save room for dessert, but vow to return with a larger group to expand our culinary experience. 
 
Safta in Hebrew means grandmother – you can see the touch of an older generation in the water glasses adorned with pink flowers, plates that would have worked in the 1950’s and even a portrait of the owner’s grandmother can be found hanging in the bar.   Many of the recipes are inspired by his grandmother- someone all of us in Denver owe a thank you.

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