To say Ghodrat Azizi is an enthusiast is an understatement. Catch him on a subject like his love of London and he bubbles over. Which makes a visit to his newly opened market a conversational treat, with a welcome akin to anything you would have been afforded back in Iran where he comes from.

The owner of Yasaman Bakery, almost diagonally opposite, he's taken over what used to be Sam's Café and Market, which is now at 844 Rockville Pike. It's brighter and airier than it was in Sam's day. And those who were disappointed by the gelati that Sam sold - a wide range with interesting flavors like Saffron and Rosewater but with an industrial rather than natural creaminess - will be pleased to hear that a connection has been made with a far superior local supplier. Azizi is also about to open a café next door that he promises will serve the best Persian cuisine in town. His wife, he says with fervour, is the best kitchen exponent he knows of the subtleties of Persian food. (Did you know it's an insult to a Persian cook to use a knife on meat? It indicates you find it tough. Food is served with a spoon and fork.)

The walnut macaroons at his bakery certainly confirm the hand of someone with a talent for cookies and sweetmeats. I can never buy them without discovering half of them have magically been consumed by the time I get to the bottom of the Rockville Pike. Azizi was 9 years old in Teheran when he began to work in his family's bakery. He'd work all day, running here, running there, helping out, he says. "You ask for tea? I fly! It's here!" Between 5 and 7 at night he went to school. Doing his National Service in the army, he was put into the medical branch, spending two years traveling the country administering shots. "I did more than 150,000!" He became one of the youngest managers at a Teheran branch of Chase Manhattan Bank where he worked for 17 years before the family arrived in the US in 1982 with the fall of the Shah. "I started again here," he shrugs, a story familiar to many local families forced to leave their homelands and begin afresh with a new profession, and opened the Yasaman Bakery.

Most of the items on the shelves at his new market are canned, jarred and dried specialties from the Middle East. But there are open barrels of dried fruits, pistachios and mixed nuts, and a small selection of fresh produce, like Persian cucumbers, those small versions good for pickling.

Around May he sells greengages. Buy them - their season is limited.

Yas Café & Market, 765 F & G Rockville Pike, in the Ritchie Center. 301 762 6666.

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3 Comments

1. Susan Lapins

   We watched the new Yas Cafe decorating and were able to eat there a few weeks after it opened. I have never had better sishlik. Even the rice is something special. Recommend gelato as appitizer (who can wait?)
   
   Susan and Aldis Lapins

2. ali

   goood thanks

3. Lilly

   I have been to Yas Cafe before.... The food is awesome! never tried food as good as it!