There’s no sign. In fact I wasn’t even sure what to expect when I peeked my head in the door and said, “Hellooo! Are you open?”
Back up. My computer broke down yesterday, so while my system was incapacitated, I took a much-needed walk around Lakewood Shopping Center. That’s when I popped into the little Greek cafe where chef and self-proclaimed “organic food healer” Gino Nikolini greeted me warmly.
He and his wife or former wife (I couldn’t exactly get a straight answer on this one) and owner Olina Nikolini opened Organicity — featuring organic, slow cooked meats, Greek and vegan cuisine, gyros, salads, coffees, teas, fresh-squeezed juices and house-made Sokolata chocolates — four weeks ago.
The most popular dish, the Moussaka & Pastito is made with organic potatoes, eggplant, zucchini and artichoke with creamy béchamel sauce — it’s $6.50 and served with a Greek salad. I only observed the in-process casserole since I was there well before lunchtime, but it looked scrumptious.
I sampled the Greek Arabic cafe — a stout, slightly muddy coffee that will put hair on your chest. A coffee that makes you say, “Hell yes — let’s do something!” That kind of coffee. It also came with a warm sugar-free cookie — not sweet, but tasty.
Nikolini swears that if you eat his food, you will live long, stay young, lean and cancer free. “Look at me,” he says running a hand along his bicep and flashing a smile full of white teeth. “I’m in my 60s”. He doesn’t look it. He talks animatedly about his ingredients and recipes: He shows me “gigantes beans from a volcanic island” that prevent cancer and black olives that cure Alzheimer’s and boost memory. He describes how he slow cooks the meat — grass fed and bought from farmers he knows personally, both locally and in Colorado — at 114-116 F to “lock in enzymes and protein”. He says that Medical City Dallas refers cancer patients to him and he claims that he has worked as a personal chef for several celebrities (he drops some names, but asks me not to print them).
The Nikolinis used to have a place by the same name on McKinney, where he once, according to a 2005 D Magazine, article got into a grapple with a guy who showed up to shut off his electricity. Oh, and did I mention that before they went into the restaurant biz, they designed shoes? Also true. High-end, Italian-made shoes that are sold at Nordstrom and Barneys.
Organicity is a few doors down from Dixie House in the Lakewood Shopping Center, 1825 Abrams. You can also enter through the other side, near the ballet school. (Right next door is a cute little vintage clothing store that I promise to tell you more about in my next post).
Here’s to broken computers and getting out more.
