Casing a foodie hangout
SHOPPING at Surfas, the restaurant supply and gourmet emporium that has been in business since 1937, can make you awfully hungry. The 69-year-old store has just moved into new digs around the corner from its former location near the Helms Bakery complex in Culver City and, with its shelves stocked to the max, there are just too many temptations.
An aisle of cured meat products, including wild boar sausages, raw-cured duck breast, Nueske’s coveted bacon and even some hot dogs. Refrigerated cases hold Devon double cream and almond flour. You want pasta? They’ve got myriad shapes from various regions in Italy. Beans? Bags of hard-to-find Tarbais from southwest France, borlotti for your pasta e fagioli, flageolets for a cassoulet and beautiful speckled heirloom varieties from our own South.
You could rush home and start cooking. Or you could stop in for a sandwich or a salad at the adjoining Cafe Surfas (at lunchtime; coffee and pastries are available before and after lunch hours). The chef doesn’t have far to go for ingredients. They’re all next door, and the cheeses are stocked in a cheese case where they’re sold by the pound right in the cafe.
It’s a simple place -- a couple of marble-topped counters, one with stools, and, outside on a concrete patio decorated with the imprints of kitchen implements, a handful of wrought-iron tables.
From the menu scrawled on a blackboard, choose your sandwich or the daily special. I have to cast my vote, immediately, for the Nueske’s smoked beef sandwich and the Diestel roast turkey one.
For dessert, there are organic lavender lemon bars, snickerdoodles and chocolate chip cookies, all of which are excellent. But where else (except La Brea Bakery) can you find canneles, those lovely fluted yeast cakes just a couple of bites high? Here, they’re displayed in a fat, lidded glass jar, too tempting to resist.
No table service here, just line up at the counter and order. It may take a little longer than you expect to put together your order. The staff is still in training and, well, those sandwiches turn out to be panini, which need to be toasted before you get them. It’s well worth the wait.
The Nueske’s smoked beef is cut thin, piled between two slices of rosemary olive bread with caramelized onions, a distinctive Maytag blue cheese mayo and horseradish mustard. The turkey is escorted by raclette cheese, Nueske’s apple wood-smoked bacon and celery root slaw on whole grain bread. And every sandwich gets a diminutive container of delicious pickles that taste halfway between sweet and sour, and another container of Surfas’ signature granola. Other lunch items include an herbed tuna sandwich with pickled okra and cheddar, an antipasti plate, Asian duck salad and filet mignon chili.
You can choose an artisanal soda from the beverage case or try an Italian soda, made to order with Monin brand syrups in flavors such as strawberry basil or raspberry lavender. I’d also recommend picking up a package of Potato Fingers potato chips. And a cannele and espresso for dessert.
Don’t forget your foodie crossword puzzle, which you can grab from a holder by the door. Pencil? I had my own, so I didn’t think to ask. An eraser might be good too.
I’ve already got my menu planned for the next shopping expedition: the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich and Nueske’s haute dog with Dijon and sauerkraut.
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Cafe Surfas
Where: 8777 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City
When: Open 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Lunch served 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. No alcohol. Lot parking.
Cost: Sandwiches, $3.95 to $7.95; salads, $7.95 to $9.95; desserts, $1.95 to $2.95
Info: (310) 558-1458