This new Mountain View restaurant offers hard-to-find Caucasus cuisine
When Hikmat Babayev agreed to help open a food truck, he didn’t realize that within a few months he’d also be opening a full-service restaurant and three ghost kitchen concepts.
“It’s been more than three months that we have (had) no rest, even one day,” he said. “We (have been) working seven days (a week) for three months now.”
On Saturday, he and his business partners, all hailing from Azerbaijan, opened the Peninsula’s only Azerbaijani restaurant in Mountain View. The opening was remarkably quick. When I interviewed him on Oct. 16 about NAR Restaurant, even I was skeptical of its timeline – the pomegranate tree mural had not been painted, the interior was very bare bones and the plan to open multiple restaurants under one roof was quite ambitious.
By night, the restaurant offers dishes from the Caucasus. Launching soon is its lunch service, which offers a combination of cuisines, including Mediterranean, Italian and American.
Stay tasty,
Adrienne
Inside the Peninsula’s first Azerbaijani restaurant: NAR Restaurant offers Caucasus region flavors alongside original takeout concepts
What started as a Mountain View food truck four months ago has just become the Peninsula’s only Azerbaijani restaurant.
A new brunch spot in San Mateo, inside a local sausage company and upcoming wine events
- The Breakfast Club at Midtown, founded in 2015 in San Jose, recently opened its seventh Bay Area location in San Mateo.
- After just six months in downtown Mountain View, Johnny & Sanny’s permanently closed on Sunday.
- Take a look inside this Sunnyvale sausage company – created by the family behind Giorgio’s in Mountain View.
- A ruling by a federal judge has allowed California to access and distribute food benefits.
- Kirk’s Steakburgers, with locations in Palo Alto and Campbell, is expanding to Santa Clara, the company announced in a recent Instagram post.
- Sample wines from 15 Santa Cruz Mountains-based wineries Saturday from 1-4 p.m. during the Menlo Park Wine Walk in downtown Menlo Park.
- Rouge Lounge in San Carlos is hosting a Holiday Sip ‘N Shop and Fundraiser Thursday from 4-7 p.m. in benefit of nonprofit Fund A Need.
- Cookie chain Crumbl expanded to Millbrae Oct. 31, reports the San Mateo Daily Journal.
Coffee and matcha at Yummy Future
It doesn’t surprise me that Palo Alto now has a coffee shop where the coffee is made by a robotic arm – if anything, it’s probably long overdue.
In theory, Yummy Future’s concept is good: consistently made and quickly made drinks, something that can be lacking at other coffee shops. But in its current iteration, I don’t really think it achieves its goal.
The robot essentially picks up the cup and moves it from machine to machine. Keep the various machines and replace the robot’s arm with that of a human, and you’ve essentially made another Starbucks. In fact, Yummy Future uses the exact same automated espresso machine many other coffee shops use, including Peet’s Coffee.
Regardless of whether the arm that moves the cup is robotic or human, the drink would taste the same. I would even go so far as to argue the drinks would come out quicker with a human arm, as the speed at which the robot picks up items doesn’t appear to be all that fast in its current iteration.
I was also hoping that because labor costs are lower, the drink prices would be lower than coffee made by a human barista. However, Yummy Future’s drinks are just as costly as nearby coffee shops. They even ask for a tip, which I find odd considering the money saved from lower labor costs should be going into paying their human employees a living wage.
I tried both the iced pistachio cream latte and the iced black sesame matcha latte ($7.50), and while both had a nice flavor, each latte was a bit watery. As a former barista for seven years, I know the latte was watery because the machine extracted the espresso directly on top of the ice. Hot liquid melts ice and results in a diluted drink. The way to solve this would be to have the robot combine the milk and espresso before introducing the ice, so that the cold milk cools down the hot espresso before adding the ice.
Where I think Yummy Future really excels is its ambiance – the space is very large, with ample seating, outlets and even whiteboards for brainstorming or equations. With hours ranging from 8 a.m. to 9 or 10 at night depending on the day, it’s the perfect spot for remote work or studying. You could literally spend all day there: Order a pastry (sourced from Manresa Bread) and a coffee in the morning, work, order a sandwich (soured from Sprout Cafe) and a matcha in the afternoon and continue working.
I’m actually quite excited to see how the robot evolves from here. If it’s eventually able to do more than just move cups, I think I’ll be a lot more impressed. Ultimately, however, it comes down to taste versus price for most consumers, and for now, I’d much rather go to Covour Coffee for a tastier coffee at the same price.
To watch the robot in action, follow @peninsulafoodist on Instagram.
Yummy Future, 170 University Ave., Palo Alto; Instagram: @yummyfuturebay. Open Sunday to Thursday from 8 a.m to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Oh Honey Macaron in Mountain View offers handmade macarons with an Asian twist
Bite into an alien that tastes like pistachio or a bear that tastes like strawberry cream cheese at a small macaron shop
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