Wednesday, May 14, 2003 | 8:38 a.m.
It seems everywhere we turn these days, a brace of new restaurants, food stores and bakeries are turning up. All one has to do is keep an eye out. Bakeries are especially interesting in that many of the newer ones tend to be ethnic. Here is a short list of three new ones, all with an ethnic twist.
Mike's Bakery
4110 S. Maryland Parkway
It's easy to miss Mike's Bakery, set way back from the street as it is, in a mall near the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus. And that would be a shame, because this is a completely delightful and exotic place to stop and sample Armenian and Lebanese sweets.
The bakery belongs to a couple, Garaped and Mari Aharonian, who previously had a pita bread bakery in Santa Ana, Calif. The Aharonians catered to the large Middle Eastern population in that area, and they had their business for more than 20 years. California's loss is our gain.
But this is far more than just a bread bakery, though one of the specialties is pouri, puffy round bread that sells for $1.10 a loaf. Every day the family bakes the Armenian flat bread lahmajun, a savory bread topped with spiced, ground beef, tomatoes and seasonings. Just $4.50 buys a pack of six. Pop one in the toaster oven for an incredibly good snack. Two or three, plus a salad, and it's a meal.
Armenian triangular-shaped, stuffed breads are filled with spinach or cheese. They are $4 each and delicious. Manaish, a pizza-like raised bread topped with an herb spread that includes thyme, sesame seed and olive oil (this bread is also called za-atar), is $2.50 for a pack of three.
But the sweet pastries are outstanding here as well, and not only ones from the Middle East. Napoleons, eclairs and individually sliced cake rolls are $1.50, or $15 for a dozen, and the very American magic bars coconut topped chocolate chip, toffee and nut bars, all at $1.75 apiece are addictively good.
Nonetheless, it is the Aharonians' array of Middle Eastern and Armenian sweets that really distinguishes Mike's Bakery. Heart-shaped goodies called kurabia are crumbly, buttery short cookies (plain or filled with walnuts), while finikia are honey-drenched pastry ovals flavored with orange zest and stuffed with chopped walnuts.
Rista halva are squares of shredded dough mingling with honey and nuts ($1.50 apiece), and it's possible to wash everything down with soorj, the muddy, Armenian-style coffee that is de rigueur in pastry shops from Beirut to Tehran.
SunVille Bakery
4053 Spring Mountain Road
The SunVille Bakery opened this past December, and belongs to a trio of owners from Taiwan. Taiwan was colonized by Japan for much of the early part of the 20th century, so for those who have been to Tokyo, the dozens of individually and attractively packaged snacks and cakes -- all of which sell for $1.50 and under -- will look surprisingly familiar.
But this is very much a fine pastry emporium, as evidenced by the beautiful wedding cakes. No cake size is too small, says one of the owners, a woman shy about revealing her name.
"We'll do anything from a 4-inch cake on up to as big as you want one," she says.
Generally, though, the cakes are done in tiers, and the largest one that the bakery has done, a five-tiered cake with 8-, 10-, 12-, 14- and 16-inch tiers, in ascending order, cost around $600.
The pastries are beautiful. Individual mocha mousse or tiramisu, each one a work or art, is $2.50. Twenty-one dollars buys an entire vanilla chestnut cake topped with pink roses, and the bakery's light, fluffy, Japanese-style cheesecake is only $7. What a find this place is.
Mario's Pizza & Panaderia
2620 Maryland Parkway
Mario's isn't quite as flashy or accomplished as the first two listed, but there are a few things to recommend here as well. The specialty is Mexican breads, often sweet, sugar-topped breads laced with cinnamon. One of the best is concha (Spanish for shell), a crusty cinnamon and sugar pastry that flakes apart when it is prodded hard.
Mario's also makes dense, large Mexican cookies, which are sold for 65 cents each. The ones topped with a happy-face pattern taste like strawberry jam, which the baker uses to top these cookies. Other cookies are filled, either with a chocolate, or a vanilla cream, and both are quite good.
Additionally, the bakery prepares a variety of donuts daily, generally around 10 different types. But during the lunch hour, this bakery morphs into a pizza joint, and pizzas are both distinctive and good.
One of the best pizzas is the Texas pizza, smeared with refried beans, ground beef and jalapenos. Then there is the Mexican, which comes topped with whole beans (frijoles a la olla), chorizo, red onion, bacon, jalapeno pepper, and spicy cheese. Whew!
The conventional pizzas, though, are very good, with chewy crusts and the proper balance of sauce and cheese. Pizzas range in price from $10.99 for a medium to $13.99 for a large with mixed seafood, and Mario's delivers both pizzas and pastries for free.
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