Cafe Europa approaches 25th anniversary in style

By Linda Lamm English,  Correspondent

PORTSMOUTH

If you know anything about fine dining in Hampton Roads, then you know about Café Europa.

You may not know, however, that there is no more bistro lunch and seating. Now, one can sit anywhere for lunch in the elegant but comfortable restaurant, though I still prefer the outdoor courtyard.

I recently talked with owner/chef Michael Simko . Mike was a soccer star in communist Czechoslovakia, where athletes were expected to have a sponsor and a job. Mike’s sponsor was a major hotel.

He went through the hotel’s hospitality school, learned his way around the kitchen, and became the manager of its restaurant and nightclub.

Café Europa opened on April 2, 1986. With Italian and French chefs from New York, a continental menu evolved. But the chefs frequently found the local life too quiet and left.

Mike finally decided to be the chef himself, after hiring, training and firing several. Wife Veronique took over the front of the house, greeting guests with a charming French accent. What is now the private dining room was once a nursery for their first child, Natalie.

Second child Sebastian was recently a waiter at my table, and I saw a budding restaurateur in him. Service is supervised with understated attentiveness by Jean Paul Charbonneau, Café Europa’s maitre d’ for 11 years.

Mike is thinking about celebrating next year’s 25th anniversary with the return of some old menu favorites. Meanwhile, I encourage you to enjoy some of my own favorites: tomato-gin bisque; hazelnut-crusted goat cheese salad, polenta with mushrooms and Gorgonzola (be sure to have a roll on hand to sop up the best sauce ever tasted), any veal entree, and Key lime pie made by Veronique.

For the future, Mike is considering a second restaurant, in Norfolk, perhaps on Granby Street. Wherever the place and whatever the menu, the food will be superb, especially if he cooks.

Linda Lamm English, linda.lamm@cox.net