Cedar’s New Brunswick clientele has followed chef Nassif Maroum’s deliciously authentic Lebanese cuisine to its new Somerville locale.
By: Faith Bahadurian
One bite of Cedar’s Lebanese food transported me to my Armenian grandmother’s kitchen, and I am convinced that chef/co-owner Nassif ("Nick") Maroum is channeling her touch at his stove.
For years he owned Cedar’s restaurant in New Brunswick (now closed), and about six months ago he moved over to the space formerly named Aladin’s in Somerville, where it appears that much of his New Brunswick clientele has followed. With him he brought his skills in the kitchen and the Cedar’s name, becoming a partner with Elie Chedid, who was Aladin’s owner.
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Cedar’s |
Cedar’s joins an area with many appealing restaurants, representing many ethnic cuisines, making Somerville one of the hottest dining destinations around. Inside Cedar’s, walls are painted a soothing taupe-y green, solid above the white wainscoting and stippled below. Tablecloths are maroon, a color also picked up in the carpet and upholstered chair seats. Napkins are paper on weeknights, but upgrade to cloth on the weekend, and Saturday night belly dancing is a big attraction.
My first visit was such a night, and a friend and I shared the dining room with two large parties, one of which was a surprise birthday party in progress. But the noise level was mostly comfortable during our meal, and we left before the show started, somewhat to my friend’s regret. Throughout our meal we were well-served by Mr. Maroum’s daughter Rebecca, a high-school senior with a great personality and tableside manner.
Entrées at Cedar’s come with three of the dishes on the appetizer menu, plus a choice of pilaf made with rice, cracked wheat or couscous, so plan accordingly. Excellent baba ghanouj eggplant dip had just the right smoky flavor. Hummus was good and garlicky, and tabouleh salad, while containing less cracked wheat than my grandmother’s, was nonetheless delicious and brightly flavored with mint and parsley. A basket of pita bread and a little dish of sharp Mediterranean olives and pickled vegetables are served.
We could not resist trying three other items from the extensive appetizer list. Spinach pies ($5.95) made with pastry dough, spinach and walnuts were a definite flash from the past for me, although my grandmother was not so fancy as to put walnuts in hers. Labneh ($5.95), thickened yogurt with dried mint and olive oil, was refreshing dolloped over other dishes, and chanklish ($6.50) intrigued me with the deep flavor of aged Feta cheese mixed with tomato, parsley, onion and oregano. All of these dishes seemed to be finished off with a generous squirt of olive oil.
Lamb is emblematic of Middle Eastern food, so we couldn’t resist two entrées that featured it, although chicken, beef and even some seafood appear on the menu, as do calves liver and "kids’ choices" such as a burger or chicken tenders.
Lebanese shawarma ($18.95) is a sauté of thin strips of marinated beef and lamb (also available with chicken), accompanied by a drizzle of sesame-based tahini sauce and a mix of chopped tomato, onion and parsley similar to tabouleh. I loved the flavors, but found it a bit salty that night, although not as leftovers the following evening. The accompanying pilaf made with burghel (cracked wheat) and onion was another strikingly familiar flavor, as was the taste of my friend’s kibbeh ($18.95), a baked dish of ground lamb mixed with burghel and spices, served with yogurt and cucumber salad. It is hard to make kibbeh that is not a bit dry, due to the wheat soaking up the lamb’s juices, and while this dish exhibited some of this, the flavor was unmistakably and deliciously authentic.
Good baklava ($3), which I am very picky about, was my dessert of choice, while my friend tried meghly ($3.50), a traditional Lebanese pudding made with finely pounded rice, cinnamon and topped with coconut and nuts refreshing but quite sweet. American coffee ($1.75) was rated very good by my friend, but we could also have tried mint or anise tea, lemonade with rose water, or a number of other beverages, some ethnic and some, like Perrier, more "continental." And for some reason I could not ascertain, the ice cold tap water in our glasses was especially good, much better than mine at home. Go figure.
For those looking for the complete ethnic experience, Cedar’s also offers a fruit-flavored argeleh smoke with mint tea ($10); this hookah-like activity will have to take place outside from now on, however, due to New Jersey’s new indoor smoking ban.
I could not resist a return visit, taking my father for his birthday on a recent weeknight. Mr. Maroum spoke a few words of Armenian to my father, which had him beaming. He convinced us to try Nick’s Family Style Dinner ($49.95 for two), and he clearly pulled out all the stops for the birthday boy, going well beyond the promised dishes.
Our table was covered with dish upon delicious dish: tender stuffed grape leaves, both cold with rice and pine nuts, and hot, with meat and rice; fattoosh, the classic salad with crunchy toasted flatbread mixed in with shredded romaine and tangy sumac; falafel with crisp fried vegetables and tahini; and an entrée tour de force of grilled lamb and chicken kabobs, moist slices of chicken and meat gyro, and ground beef patties wrapped around a skewer and grilled.
We finished off this king’s meal with a dessert sampler that included a special Lenten nut-filled cookie redolent of rosewater, and deeply rich herbal tea that Mr. Maroum blends himself. He so obviously loves to cook and play the gracious host to his clientele; I have no doubt they would follow him anywhere I know I would.

