A neighborhood cafe where everyone knows your name

On a rare rainy day in the San Fernando Valley, what could be more comforting than a generous bowl of shakshouka — spicy tomato sauce rich with onions and peppers over three nicely poached eggs with crusty slices of French baguette on the side?

Or more cheering than a cafe latte with thick foam to accompany a three-layer chocolate mousse? Just sitting near the case of lovely pastries at Roladin Bakery & Cafe will brighten any cloudy morning.

The restaurant and patisserie-bakery at the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Tampa Avenue in Reseda is just the kind of neighborhood place people are always hoping to find (not to mention that it is in the Loehmann’s Plaza Shopping Center, where parking spaces are plentiful).

The black-and-white decor, comfortable seating and an improbable but charming high, tin ceiling creates a pleasant, bright ambience. And the menu is eclectic, with selections that include the aforementioned shakshouka, plus beet salad, thin-crust pizzas, tuna salad, tilapia schnitzel, pastas and omelets made with honey and rosemary. Plus a variety of espresso drinks and all those beautiful desserts. And isn’t that variety what people want in a real cafe — the thing that distinguishes it from a chain?

It’s clear the owners care about what their customers order. The sweet Israeli waitress is so pleased when I, so evidently non-Israeli, try the shakshouka. “Oh, you’re going to love it!” she tells me.

Haim Gweta, the owner, learned the restaurant business in Israel before joining family in the Valley. He is almost always at the cafe —he’s the tall, laconic fellow who insists on giving us a sample of the fine little tea cookies dusted with powdered sugar at the moment when we are sure we cannot manage another bite. (We do manage, of course, and imagine coming back for a late-afternoon tea someday soon.)  Gweta is eager for us to return on Friday, before the cafe closes early for Shabbat, to get what he assures us is the best fresh-baked challah in the Valley or a special Moroccan whole fish. And we might pick up an order of bourekas (cheese-filled puff-pastries) to take home, too.

The cafe can be relied on for a hearty breakfast, a healthy lunch, a light dinner or pick-me-up snacks after shopping, or with kids in the afternoon. The big selection of fresh, simple foods offers enough variety to keep everyone in a group happy. There is a children’s menu, but the regular menu is perfectly kid-friendly — if you don’t require fast-food-style fried chicken nuggets and super-sized sodas for your young people — and there are plenty of vegetarian choices. Omelets, which are served open-face, pasta and pizza can be custom designed, and there are falafel, hummus and roasted eggplant sandwiches on freshly baked bread. Speaking of bread,  you will have to fight the temptation to polish off the little whole wheat rolls that come with the appetizer plate of spicy carrot salad, cabbage, olive tapenade and spinach. Roladin’s menu changes seasonally and everything is available for takeout.

When it comes to dessert, Roladin offers 18 different cakes, as well as special-occasion cakes. The beautiful fruit tart Florentine and the raspberry chocolate cake, like many of the other pastries, are available in a full-size serving, as well as an inexpensive two- or three-bite variety. Or, if you would prefer to forgo the pastries,  a fresh fruit plate is also available.

Certainly the strip mall is not a history-rich Parisian intersection, or even a Brooklyn street corner, but in Southern California, our neighborhoods are shaped by such odd mash-ups of dollar stores and specialty cigar shops, supermarkets and cafe-bakeries. Stopping your car long enough to explore them offers the same rewards that people in other cities take for granted — the good, casual place where you can quickly become a regular.