Miranda's Albanian Cafe

Since I mentioned Miranda's in another post, I thought I would repost something sent out to the LTH list-serve before the board got going, along with a couple of photos. This is dated April 8, 2004:



Nothing says Eastern European like a tropical-themed smoking section

You may have noticed the ice cream shop opposite The Cheese Stands Alone, a little south of Spoon, on Western, called Cafe Miranda. You may not have noticed that it suddenly sprouted a banner announcing Albanian food. Since I already had the only known Albanian restaurant (I think) on my belt, Noli's Pizza, I figured I should be the first here, too.* So I stopped in.

The odd thing was, the woman behind the counter didn't look Albanian, so I asked her. No, Guatemalan, she said. Perhaps not surprisingly, she displayed even more of the tendency to steer non-ethnics toward the cheeseburger and such on the menu than you'd probably expect in a place like this anyway (and Eastern Europeans usually seem to be incredulous that you'd want their food, when it's actually much less exotic for someone of German heritage from Mennonite country like myself than most things I eat). But after I chatted her up about Guatemalan and South American food, she was more willing to let me order the authentic Albanian food. (She recommends Pueblito Viejo, which I think Gary reported on a while back.)

Well, I don't remember what the name was when I ordered it but by the time it came it was just grilled kebabs of ground beef, accompanied by decent rice and a couple of nice cubes of strong feta-style cheese, perfectly tasty but nothing unusual. It may be that Albanian just doesn't have that distinct a cuisine, but I like to think that maybe as time goes by they will dig deeper into their cuisine and even serve it to non-Albanians-- and non-Guatemalans.

* Note: actually Aaron Deacon posted about this place when it was still just an ice cream stand on Chowhound, but as usual the link seems impossible to find.

I don't remember what the name was when I ordered it came it was just grilled kebabs of ground beef

The Balkan favorite: Cevapcici

They didn't call it that. That's why I didn't remember it.

Miranda's Cafe has been closed for several months, ostensibly for remodeling.

Today I noticed that the awning was being painted over and a new sign was hanging: Los Nopales. Just what Lincoln Square needs, another Mexican restaurant. Somebody is either crazy or gutsy. At least there isn't another Mexican restaurant within a block in any direction.

Let us not forget the excellent Euro Grill in Des Plaines for Albanian food.

Euro Grill (by Sweet Willie)

(I obviously haven't figured out how to provide a URL address. Sorry. But this is an excellent post by Sweet Willie about the Euro Grill.