Over a decade ago, former Westword food editor Mark Antonation began his food-writing career by eating his way up Federal Boulevard. Now, we're turning our attention to another vibrant culinary corridor.
The four-plus-mile stretch of Havana Street between Dartmouth and Sixth Avenue in Aurora is home to the most diverse array of international cuisine available in the metro area. From restaurants and markets to take-and-go shops and stands, food lovers of nearly any ethnicity or interest can find a place that will remind them of home or open new culinary doors. In Eat Up Havana, Antony Bruno will visit them all, one by one, week by week.
Previous stops:
- Old Town Hot Pot
- Leezakaya
- Chutney Indian Cuisine
- El Tequileno
- Milkroll
- Shin Myung Gwan Korean BBQ
- Watan Restaurant & Bakery
- Las Fajitas
- Mr. Tang
- Nana’s Dim Sum & Dumplings
- Yemen Grill
- Tofu House
- Sushi Katsu
- Coco Loco
The thing about Havana Street is that it’s not really a typical “street” you'd stroll along, stopping to pop into a restaurant or shop as you might on a small-town Main Street.
Havana is a busy corridor, lined with tire shops, auto dealerships and banks. Scattered between them are compact shopping centers and strip malls that house the restaurants, markets and shops that have earned the street its reputation for diverse, international cuisine.
Once you pull into the (often poorly maintained and cramped) parking lots of these centers to visit an establishment, you get a quick tour of the neighboring businesses that share the space, which can lead to serendipitous and unexpected discoveries.
Ali Restaurant & Bakery is a perfect example. It’s wedged into the Havana Plaza center along with well-recognized local chains like Sushi Katsu and several Seoul Hospitality Group concepts, including Menya, Mochinut, Coffee Story, Seoul Mandoo and Thank Sool.
With no website or social media presence to prepare you, it would be easy to overlook an unassuming spot unless you’re walking by the open door at just the right moment to witness the elemental force that gives Ali Restaurant & Bakery a notable seat at the table: fire.
Most restaurants take advantage of stable, controllable propane grills to grill their meats, but not Ali International Bakery & Restaurant. Here, staffers pour large piles of lump charcoal into an enclosed grill, light it up, and then blast it with an air compressor to rapidly and violently bring it to a glowing red-hot pile of embers. No gas. No chemicals.
Standing outside the door, you can hear the fuel crackle and snap sharply, sending red and yellow embers into the air like a backyard fire pit barbecue. Inside, you’ll find a small group of men standing in front of the inferno, taking handfuls of ground meat from a large metal bowl and pressing them around long flat skewers to place directly into the flame.
The result is an aggressively charred kebab, made from beef or chicken mixed with spices and onions, that at first looks burnt, but inside remains moist. They’re served either on a bed of rice mixed with peas or stuffed into a sandwich.
According to the men manning the grill, this is Iraqi-style cuisine. The rice, for instance, is aggressively spiced with cinnamon and allspice and mixed with green peas. The bread is called samoon; it's similar to a pita, made in the on-site bakery and also available to buy separately.
But kebabs are not the only option. Sitting next to the flaming grill is a long, vertical shawarma skewer topped with an onion and tomato, from which they slice deliciously fat-basted mounds of either beef or chicken. And if neither kebabs nor shawarma strike your fancy, there’s also whole or half rotisserie chicken.
All come with a variety of sauces like hot sauce, tahini and mayo. And all the meat is halal, meaning it was slaughtered and butchered according to Islamic dietary guidelines. In fact, the grill is tightly packed into the same space as a Middle Eastern market where you can buy fresh halal meat, bread, rice and a wide variety of teas, spices and other products.
Ali's beef kabab in the making, with the ground beef pressed onto the skewer before entering the fire.
Antony Bruno
Soon, that will change. The owner is expanding into the former Addis Ababa Restaurant next door, and will move the market portion of the business into that space to allow more room for the restaurant. There's no timeline for that expansion just yet, but construction is underway.
Ali Restaurant & Bakery is located at 2222 South Havana Street, Suite C1, and is open from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. For more information, call 720-404-0363.
