Fired Up

Folks who remember Ali Haghighi and Debbie Leslie from the Little Cafe in Tarzana will want to know that they’re working together in a new place in Van Nuys.

Haghighi and his partner, Dino Zadeh, who serves as general manager, opened the new place, the Brick Oven, nearly three months ago and quickly started doing a brisk business among people from the government center nearby.

So far, Haghighi and Zadeh offer only breakfast and lunch weekdays, plus brunch on Saturdays, and you sometimes have to fight for a table. But they hope to take over the vacant lot next door and turn it into a patio. If that goes well, they may start serving dinner too.

Debbie Leslie waits tables, and she already knows her regulars by name, just as she did when she worked for Haghighi at the Little Cafe and later tried her hand at running her own place on Ventura Boulevard in Tarzana.

Haghighi sold his interest in the Little Cafe in 1992 to partner Ray Pourfarzib to study at the California Culinary Academy. More recently, he cooked at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey. But the joys of running a small place tugged at him, and when the opportunity to do so in Van Nuys came along, he took it.

He made sure to get Debbie Leslie in on the act too.

“We’re old friends--11 years at least,” Haghighi says. “All her customers from the Little Cafe still know her, and many of them are coming here now.

“This place used to be a bar,” he adds. “It took us about 2 1/2 months to get it ready. I’m going to try to get the patio open in another three or four weeks, and if that goes well, maybe we’ll start staying open until 6 o’clock.

On the breakfast menu:

* Two eggs, two oat-bran granola pancakes, plus sausage, bacon, or ham and a side of potatoes, tomato or cottage cheese, for $5.25; or

* Omelets with chili, vegetables, chorizo, ground sirloin, Italian sausage, for $5.75 max.

For lunch:

* Eight salads, including a Cobb, a crab-cake salad, a Caesar and a chicken breast glazed with teriyaki sauce, for prices topping out at $9.95;

* A ground sirloin burger, an egg-and-bacon burger, a brie-mushroom burger and a pastrami burger, for $5.25;

* Nine pizzas, including one with smoked salmon and another with chicken and rosemary potatoes, for $6.25 tops; and

* No fewer than 16 sandwiches, including one with roast turkey, one with albacore tuna, a chicken club, a chicken cordon bleu and a grilled salmon sandwich, for prices under $7.95.

The Brick Oven is located at 14546 Erwin Street, just east of Van Nuys Boulevard in Van Nuys, (818) 904-9232.

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Peter Divris celebrates the first anniversary of the opening of his popular Encino place, the Greek Bistro, with a $7.95 early bird special all during June.

The early bird menu will be available from 4 to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, starting next week. In addition, you can get a glass of wine or a small Greek salad or dessert for $1 more.

Divris serves lunch and dinner every day, with indoor and outdoor seating available. The Greek Bistro is at 17337 Ventura Blvd., at the corner of Louise Street in Encino, (818) 789-2888.

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Executive Chefs Harry Klingbat and Karl Rohner have some new items to offer on the menu at the Bistro Garden at Coldwater.

Among them: ostrich medallions with a plum sauce, a Napoleon of beets and goat cheese, an Indonesian-style rack of lamb, braised short ribs with spring vegetables and pasta, seven-herb ricotta ravioli with a tomato coulis and chanterelle mushrooms, a lobster and celery root salad, and sesame-crusted salmon with a wasabi soy sauce.

The Bistro Garden at Coldwater is at 12950 Ventura Blvd., in Studio City, (818) 501-0202.

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Juan Hovey writes about the restaurant scene in the San Fernando Valley and outlying points. He may be reached at (805) 492-7909 or fax (805) 492-5139 or via e-mail at jhovey@gte.net.