| Café offers elegant cuisine, delightful
setting Friday November 5, 1999
HEATHER'S QUICK BITE
By Heather Youngman Allegany's New Moon Cafe offers upscale cuisine in a relaxed and casual atmosphere that enhances the dining experience and the already tremendous food. The cafe offers an unusual, yet alluring menu selection. Unlike the burgers and fries indigenous to most Allegany eateries, the cafe provides diners with such selections as hummus, homemade tortellini soup and Jamaican jerk chicken. Although the menu changes often, certain staples remain. A large Greek salad, $5.95, contains the perfect mixture of greens, sprouts and bib lettuce. Topped with marinated artichokes, olives and feta cheese, the salad could easily feed more than one person. A choice of homemade dressings, such as garlic-herb parmesan, takes away from the acidity of the dish, leaving the meal balanced and complete. A hummus and sprout sandwich on a bread roll-up, $4.95, comes with the freshest of cucumbers, radishes, onions and sprouts. The medley, which may sound like an unusual combination, is nonetheless delicious. A plate of homemade pasta for $6.50 comes with a choice of sauce, style of pasta (plain, peppercorn or garlic-herb) and garlic bread. A garden-style sauce, with chunks of peppers, onions and tomatoes, is well textured, yet delicate, and spicy, but moderate. Several dessert selections round out the meal. A pumpkin-pecan pie, $2.50, was well-flavored. The mixture of nutmeg and cinnamon, quite apparent in the bottom pumpkin layer, did not intrude on the heartiness of the pecans gracing the top. Homemade fat-free cheesecake, also $2.50 a slice, served as the perfect end to the delicious meal. Perhaps the best addition to the food is not an extra course but the atmosphere. Neat and decorous with obvious influences from art-deco and 1930s architecture, the restaurant provides a relaxed and social ambiance. The tables have no formal place settings, but rather hold painted flower-pots that contain silverware. This encourages an informal and modern feeling. Saying that the New Moon Café, with its off-beat menu and fairly-priced, delicious entreés, is superb would not do justice to the establishment. It truly may be the best Allegany has to offer.
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