The Campbell Reporter

Business

Photograph by Brian Connelly

Traditional Dishes: Café Artemis server Ergun Albuz serves humus and fried pita bread (left) and lentil kofte. The meals are popular in the Greek isles. The restaurant recently opened in the Pruneyard near Trudy's.

Ring around the 'Rosies, a pocket full of 'Posies'

By Koren Temple

The sweet scents of Mediterranean cuisine are filling the Pruneyard Shopping Center with the opening of Café Artemis, a contemporary Turkish-Greek restaurant.

The restaurant opened at the beginning of August and offers traditional Aegean dishes popular in the Greek islands.

"We have a variety of kebabs and wraps," said owner and head cook Gokmen Ekmekci, who operates the restaurant with his wife, Ozlem.

The family-operated business is the second Mediterranean restaurant in the area; the other is Yiassoo, just south of the Pruneyard on Bascom Avenue.

At Café Artemis, patrons can take advantage of lunch menus, hot and cold appetizers and large family-style dishes. Classic Greek salads, filled with cucumber, tomato, red onion, feta cheese and olive oil, are served at dinner and lunch. Lentil and mint soups are also offered at either seating.

Falafel wraps and paninis are served with a small green salad, and the kebab-lunch entrées come with rice pilaf and roasted vegetables.

"The falafel wraps are most popular at lunch, and the chicken dishes are very popular for dinner," said Ekmekci, who moved to Sunnyvale from Virginia eight years ago.

For dinner, there's an assortment of seafood and lamb, with Aegean fried calamari, steamed mussels and lamb kofte on the menu. Mashed potatoes, rice and vegetables come with a dinner entrée.

"The dinner portions are large enough to share, and we encourage people to taste different dishes," Ekmekci said.

The menu offers meze plates, which are small enough for one individual at both lunch and dinner. If a big meal isn't what a diner has in mind, the individual can chose from favorites such as humus and tzatziki, which is a cold appetizer made of yogurt, cucumber, garlic and fresh herbs.

"Many of the dishes are family recipes and come from my mother and my wife's mother," Ekmekci said.

Ekmekci didn't start off as a cook. While earning his business administration and engineering degree, Ekmekci worked as a kitchen manager at an uncle's restaurant in Virginia.

Twelve years later, Ekmekci has learned to add the right amount of Greek oregano and rosemary to give his family's food its unique flavor. The meats are marinated in olive oil, pepper paste and other Greek spices.

"Greek and Turkish cuisine are very similar, and we have a lot of Italian influences in our food," said Ekmekci, who speaks both languages. Ekmekci's family comes from the tiny island of Izmir, which is part of Turkey. The island is known for its heavy use of calamari and octopus in its dishes.

Ekmekci wanted to emulate the feeling of dining on his island and said, "I really looked for a location with the outdoor seating."

The restaurant was designed to capture the feel of an old Mediterranean house in the interior eating space. The floor has terra cotta-colored tile, dark hues of purple and candles at each cherrywood table.

"There's a mural on the wall that shows a fisherman on a boat near the beach," Ekmekci said.

Café Artemis has given Ekmekci the opportunity to create a traditional menu and atmosphere all his own. Before the restaurant opened, Ekmekci co-founded an Italian restaurant in Mountain View, which was sold last November.

"I chose Campbell because it's a middle-class, diverse community," he said.

For more information about Café Artemis, 1875 S. Bascom Ave., call 408.626.8100 or visit www.cafeartemis.com. The restaurant is open daily from 11 a.m.-10 p.m.