An Excursion to Sam’s Café & Market

>As I drove back and forth on Rockville Pike the last few weeks, I noticed Sam’s Café & Market moving into a new storefront. When the neon words “hookah”, “shisha”, and “international” glowed in the front windows with a grand opening banner, I stopped in to try something new.

After ten years in Ritchie Center, Sam has moved his homemade gelato to this new location on Rockville Pike (844 Rockville Pike) across from Wintergreen Plaza. Although at a new location, he continues to prepare up to 84 flavors of gelato, many without dairy and eggs.

Although my taste of the lemon gelato creamily melted in my mouth, I wanted to try the bubble tea with tapioca balls sinking to the bottom of every flavor. Before sipping through the large straw, I wondered how to avoid swallowing the beads whole but this wasn’t a problem as I carefully sipped my “chewy” Café Latte and wandered around the shop.

You can’t help but notice the beautifully-colored smoking devices called hookahs. I had to ask if you smoked with them and of course you do. Sam joked that everything sold at the shop was legal. He insisted a hookah’s comparable to smoking cigarettes but much better. When I saw the selection of shisha tobaccos flavored with mint, banana, mango, fruit, and cocktails, I started to wish that I did smoke, so I could try the exotic piece of equipment.

In addition to a grocery store with dry goods, pickles, beans, bulgar, barley, and nuts from Iran, Turkey, Israel and Lebanon, the café serves salads, sandwiches, and kabobs with chicken, beef, and lamb. Sam pointed out that their method of cooking the meats removes the fats making the dishes quite healthy. The Café goes light on the spices. Aash, a thick fortifying peasant soup of lentils, red kidney beans and vermicelli noodles, tops the menu. Even on a chilly winter day, the sun pouring in the walls of windows created a bright spot to eat lunch. The bakery had trays of baklava and almond cookies.

When I looked at the bottled water, I couldn’t help but notice this wasn’t your ordinary selection. The waters were flavored with fenugreek, cumin seeds, rose, chicory, and orange blossoms. In one refrigerator I found bottles of Coca-Cola and PEPSI along with cans of yogurt soda and coconut juice. Large pots of coffee and tea were available for refills.

After eating in the Café, s few researchers from NIH enjoyed some gelato cones. They clued me into a couple of other markets on Rockville Pike. We wound up discussing how unfortunate it would be to if we redeveloped the Pike in such a way that these small, privately-owned shops were pushed out, unable to afford the higher rents.

For now, I’m going to continue to enjoy little excursions to unique places tucked away on Rockville Pike.

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