Just in time for the holidays, the Red Currant bistro is open for business at the Allied Arts Guild in Menlo Park. The proprietors are Nir and Ayellet Perry, a young Israeli couple who own the Cassis Catering Company in Redwood City.
The cafe is open for breakfast and lunch 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Reservations are needed for groups of five or more.
The menu is more varied and sophisticated than the homestyle casseroles and gelatin salads served for so many years by members of the Palo Alto Auxiliary to the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. The morning choices include “shakshuka,” as well as a continental breakfast. “Shakshuka” is a traditional Middle Eastern egg dish ($12.50). It can be ordered in American, Greens, or Mediterranean style.
There are sandwiches and salads for lunch, as well as such entrees as hanger steak medallions with celery root-potato puree and carmelized onions ($19.95) and chicken schnitzel ($15.75).
Pastries offered at lunch include chocolate babka cake, chocolate-orange marzipan cake, and apple crumble cake. Chocolate or caramel pot de creme, espresso tiramisu and lemon tart with amaretto crunch are all house-made.
The restaurant space at Allied Arts has been vacant since the end of February. That’s when the Palo Alto Auxiliary, whose volunteer members ran the restaurant for 75 years, closed because the Guild’s owner, the Woodside-Atherton Auxiliary, did not renew the lease.
In keeping with the terms of the auxiliary’s use permit for the complex, the Red Currant won’t be serving alcohol.
The Red Currant is located at 75 Arbor Road in Menlo Park; call 322-2626.
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