The Barbary Fig
720 Grand Avenue, St. Paul; (651) 290-2085
Hours: Closed Tuesday; lunch Monday, Wednesday-Saturday 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m.; dinner Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday 5:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m.; Friday-Saturday 5:30-9:30 p.m.
What pleases the Midwestern Palate? Cliché-spinners have caricatured the heartland tongue as a meat-and-potato-seeking missile. But those who live here know it's not that simple--witness the fierce metrowide allegiance to garlic-based artichoke ramekins, or the bloody duels that ensue when the various pad thai factions draw swords.
 Photo By Kristine Heykants |
Even worse, says Hadj-Moussa (whom everyone knows as Hadj), are the wine showoffs: "You would not believe how many people come in here and say, 'You don't serve Bordeaux? Then there is nothing to drink.' You don't go to Italy and say, 'I want to drink German wine.' You drink the wine that's made in the back yard!" Those who turn up their nose at the thick, raisiny North African wines Hadj serves--at $3.95 a glass or $18.95 a bottle--miss out on a one-of-a-kind experience, since they won't be offered a glass of the house-made dessert wine, a white Moroccan vintage steeped for a month with oranges, juniper berries, and cinnamon. "If we have some ready and [customers] behave, we give them a little," says Hadj. But if you insult his decision to serve northwestern African wine with northwestern African food--nuts to you, you won't get a thimbleful.
The Barbary Fig is like that, personality-driven and idiosyncratic, rich with Hadj's quirks and strengths. For example, the upstairs dining room is yellow accented with purple, the ceiling painted with enormous swirling red onions, the walls decorated with Cézanne-like paintings, all of which work together to create sunshiny vibes reminiscent of Aix-en-Provence, the French city where Hadj lived when he first left Algeria. The restaurant has other Provençal touches--the lavender that tops a chocolate pastry, the silky crème caramel, the rabbit cassoulet that's been a special off and on for the past two years.
Meanwhile Hadj's Algerian roots are represented in things like the fresh lamb sausages, the tagines (simmered stews unique to northwestern Africa), and perhaps above all in the homey house soup ($1.50 a cup), a rich lamb and chicken broth fleshed out with herbs, a little tomato and cracked wheat, and lemon juice. If you're used to choosing between soups to start your meal, you might ask why the Barbary Fig serves one soup and only one? "I don't want to fall into that fast-paced American food culture," admits Hadj. "When I go back to Algiers, people eat the same thing every day. Nothing changes. The one soup is the only soup."
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- Back to the Root (Jun 16, 1999)
- Got Milk! (Jun 9, 1999)
- The Same Restaurant Twice (Jun 2, 1999)
- Manhattan Transfer (May 26, 1999)
- Pub and Grub (May 19, 1999)
- Maplewood's Malaysian Mystery (May 12, 1999)
- Down the Garden Path (Apr 28, 1999)
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About Dara Moskowitz
From the Archive
- Back to the Root (Eaters' Digest - Jun 16, 1999)
- Got Milk! (Eaters' Digest - Jun 9, 1999)
- The Same Restaurant Twice (Eaters' Digest - Jun 2, 1999)
- Manhattan Transfer (Eaters' Digest - May 26, 1999)
- Pub and Grub (Eaters' Digest - May 19, 1999)
- Maplewood's Malaysian Mystery (Eaters' Digest - May 12, 1999)
- Down the Garden Path (Eaters' Digest - Apr 28, 1999)
- Pancake World (Eaters' Digest - Apr 21, 1999)
- More articles from the Dara Moskowitz Archive...
