A Taste of Elegance

Monte Cristo offers peaceful ambiance with a hookah bar

By TASHA GALLEGOS

A LITTLE DRIVE DOWN Friant Road can lead you to a Mediterranean-style restaurant that has already been discovered by some Fresnans, but has yet to be discovered by others.

Monte Cristo Café sits in a corner of the Riverview shopping center on Fort Washington and Friant roads.

A fountain that sits directly in front sets a relaxing and elegant feel even before stepping into the restaurant.

An outdoor patio surrounded by a small rod iron fence appears inviting for those nice spring and summer days. And if customers are intent on sitting outside on cooler days, there are a few heat lamps for their added comfort.

One of the restaurant’s walls is made of window panels that slide open to create an open, outdoor café feel inside.

As soon as customers open the door, there’s a strong sweet aroma that lingers in the air. Usually there are one or two waitresses, with a friendly smile, standing behind the bar. If it’s not too busy, customers are welcomed to take any seat they wish.

As patrons make their way across the aggregate floor, they’ll not only notice the granite tables but also what’s sitting in the middle of them — a small protruding circle with a picture of a waiter on it. All you need to do to get service is push on the circular pager.

Tiko Pogosyan, who owns Monte Cristo Café with his brother Aramis, said this paging feature is one of a kind in Fresno. The 23-year-old Tiko said it is a feature seen mostly in Europe.

The ambiance the owners created for this restaurant is truly elegant; decorative and modern light fixtures add color and keep the café dimly lit for a more relaxed, romantic feel.

Along the walls close to the ceiling are statues that sit in tiny niches within the walls, and the restaurant showcases three 42-inch and two 20-inch plasma televisions. Toward the back of the restaurant is the special room and a VIP room.

Another unique feature about the restaurant is that it is also a hookah lounge. Tiko said hookah is fruit pulp mixed with molasses and tobacco. He said it contains about .05 percent nicotine. Monte Cristo Café allows customers to smoke inside. It costs anywhere from $10 to $20, depending on what flavor customers want to smoke. Flavors offered include apricot, peach, vanilla and blueberry. Customers can also mix and match flavors according to their liking. Be prepared to show ID. To smoke hookah, customers must be at least 18 years old.

And those 21 and older, can get alcohol.

The menu includes a wide array of dishes from Armenia, Russia and Greece to America. The most expensive plate is the Monte Cristo steak for $13.99. The cheapest dish is $5.99 for a good old-fashioned cheeseburger. And if customers are up for trying new things, there is yalanchi (stuffed grape leaves), hommus (chick-pea dip), tabuleh (cracked wheat salad), baba ghannoush (eggplant dip), and baklava (phyllo dough filled with nuts and layered in a syrup). There’s also much more to choose from.

And for an added bonus, Monte Cristo Café will take 15 percent off the tab if the customer shows a Fresno State or Fresno City College ID.

The restaurant, which Pogosyan said he named after the 2002 movie The Count of Monte Cristo, is already a favorite for some.

“I love it. I think it’s awesome,” said Dustin Topoozian, a senior at Fresno State majoring in business finance. Topoozian said he heard about Monte Cristo Café from his stepsister. He said it was the kind of place he’d come back to.

Jeanette Ensom, a waitress at the café, also said she likes working there, noting that she makes good tips and would like to see more college-aged students come to the restaurant.