Baklava and ‘cheesy bread.’ This new Fresno restaurant has Armenian food and more

Look closely and there are little bits of beauty to be found in one of northwest Fresno’s newest restaurants.

The name of the restaurant, Baklava House, is written in pink neon on a wall of faux greenery in what used to be a Subway sandwich shop.

Order a house tea, and a glass teapot of what looks like molten rubies studded with fresh strawberries and warmed by a candle arrives at the table.

And of course there’s the case of baked goods.

Several kinds of baklava are on display, with walnuts or almonds, oranges or chocolate and drizzled in a honey sauce that makes them shine.

Judy Statler of Fresno and her friends clustered around the counter to ooh and aah at the sweets on a recent afternoon.

“I have to see these beautiful pastries — and they’re gorgeous!” she said.

Baklava House

But before we delve too much into food, the basics: Baklava House is a newly opened little restaurant at the northwest corner of Bullard and West avenues. It’s in the same shopping center as Save Mart.

It serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. Owner Arut Mkhitaryan described it as European-American food, though it’s got a heavy Armenian influence.

It’s not high-end. It’s not the type of place you have to dress up for (though it does have a certain charm you won’t find in most restaurants the size of a sandwich shop).

It’s unrecognizable as a former Subway, redone in shades of white. Baklava House also took over the former Oka Japanese spot next door, with Mkhitaryan buying the business and turning it into the dining room.

The menu

There is a lot happening on Baklava House’s menu: Italian spaghetti, French chicken, rack of lamb, sandwiches, soups and dolma, made with ground beef wrapped in grape leaves.

Breakfast is served all day and includes pancakes and waffles, steak and eggs, and shakshuka — eggs nestled in a pan of tomatoes and bell peppers.

The cabbage rolls are vegan.

Entrees range from $9.95 for a chicken panini to $26 for a ribeye steak.

But what does the owner, Mkhitaryan, recommend? The Georgian cheese bread (or cheesy bread, as he calls it). It’s also known as ajarakan, khachapuri, perhaps an egg boat.

It’s football-shaped bread, filled with a gooey mixture of three cheeses and an egg that’s still runny.

General manager and Mkhitaryan’s sister, Karine Sahakyan, provided this Bee reporter and photographer with a little tutorial about how to eat it in the kitchen.

Using a “rip and dip” method, she tears off a corner of the bread, busts it into the yellow egg yolk and twirls it around in the cheese.

“You have to do like tornado inside,” she said. “Make it all mixed. Now you try.”

When we got a little wild wrapping 8-inch long stretches of gooey cheese around hunks of bread, she exclaimed, “That’s what I’m talking about!”

You can get all kinds of toppings baked into the cheese, including eggplant, chicken, pepperoni and basturma, a sort of cured bacon made from beef that’s popular in the Middle East. Fresh stalks of green tarragon are a popular topping that’s not on the menu, but if you ask for it, they’ll likely have it.

What toppings does Mkhitaryan prefer? “I like all the toppings,” he said with a big grin.

Baklava

The traditional baklava is a made with walnuts, honey and layers of phyllo dough.

“All the baklavas, they are one taste only, with the nuts,” he said. “Our baklava is different because they have a different taste — raspberry, blueberry tastes, lemon, chocolate.”

The flavors rotate and are baked fresh daily.

You can make large orders ahead of time. Baklava House also sells gift boxes of a dozen or so baklavas with stickers that say “Best mother ever” or “thank you” for $22.

There are a few other kinds of pastries at Baklava House, though not many. Mkhitaryan said he could do more, but chooses not to.

“I don’t want to do another pastry,” he said. “I want to do only baklava.”

For Mkhitaryan, baklava goes back to when he was a child in Armenia, when his grandmother made it and other treats for the family, served with tea.

He got into the food business as a teen in Armenia — including running a baklava bakery at one point — and never looked back. He came to the U.S. 30 years ago and kept opening businesses.

He opened Noah’s Ark Restaurant & Bakery in Fresno years ago before selling it, along with so many other businesses sometimes he can’t remember their names.

More and different restaurants are in the works, too. He’s behind the Front Yard Burger that’s gearing up to open on Blackstone Avenue. And he’s planning a place called Cheesy Bread House serving that Georgian cheese bread in the Flippin’ Daves Burgers and Fries spot on West Shaw Avenue.

That’s the way he does things.

“My goal is to do something new all the time,” he said.

Details

Baklava House is at 2040 W. Bullard Ave. Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays. 559-840-1238.