Call me pedantic if you like; you wouldn’t be the first. Punctuation, syntax, orthography . . . I’m sort of a stickler for such admittedly superficial aspects of language use. That’s not to say I’m not prone to the occasional typo or, worse, constructs such as the double negative. But I would hope that you’ll never find egregious errors such as "desert dujour" or "Ask about our infused vodka’s" in any menu I was responsible for.

That’s what struck me first about the menu at our rendezvous point this week: the new Café Europa. It wasn’t the fold-out panel with the tapas or the listings of salads, sandwiches, and entrées, but the "dujour" specials , the "desert" items, the egregious apostrophe. I’ll readily overlook worse mistakes in some hole-in-the-wall ethnic place—in the right context, a misspelling can be charming, even an indication of authenticity. But in a restaurant that’s promoting itself as the latest addition to the elegant-dining scene in town it earns an automatic demerit on my scorecard.

Now that that’s off my chest ... Europa is located at the I-394/Highway 169 intersection, on the ground floor of the "Interchange" building. It’s the latest addition to a local restaurant chain that also includes Santorini (a neighbor) and Nicklow’s (soon to be in a new space, the former home of Sherlock’s Home). The owner seems to specialize in restaurants of a certain Greco-European persuasion, located in tucked away corners of the western metro area. The Greek influence is stronger in the two older establishments, but it extends to Europa too. The name refers to Greek mythology and the back page of the menu outlines the myth and pretentiously paints a connection between the restaurant and the fairy tale. Given the location I was surprised that the restaurant was as busy as it was. In most instances business was being conducted over lunch, but there was a couple or two taking advantage of the discreet location and making a tryst of it.

I found some of our initial experiences jarring. Before the hostess showed us to our seat, she walked over to a tray exhibiting the specials of the day and told us about them. We were early for lunch so these plates—a penne with artichoke cream sauce, a frittata with manchego cheese and other ingredients, and a broiled salmon entrée—still looked fresh, but I wonder how many of these get ordered later in the lunch hour when sauces have congealed and meats and fish have attained that been-set-out-too-long look (or smell). Next, after we sat down, a server appeared with a water pitcher and a bowl of lemon wedges, and we were asked if we liked our water with or without lemon. Finally, our waiter went through this little dipping-mixture preparation for our benefit. He took two small plates and grated parmesan onto each of them, followed that with a healthy pour of olive oil, and topped that with balsamic vinegar. With fingers glistening with oil, he placed the concoctions in front of us. Enjoy.

Although we ordered off the menu, there’s a lunch buffet that looks like a deal with options for salads, soups, sandwiches, or the whole shebang including made-to-order omelets. The price ranges from $6 to $10. This day the sandwich bar included freshly carved roast beef sandwiches.

As already noted, part of the menu lists a number of tapas items. We split one of these as a starter: mozzarella-stuffed dates with Serrano ham. The dates came three to an order, each wrapped up in a strip of ham. The dates themselves were gooey, almost too much so, and the ham was dry and brittle.

My main dish was a braised pork tenderloin, which came with craisin walnut risotto and cranberry brandy glaze. The braised pork turned out to be grilled rather than braised, more of a souvlaki than anything else but tasty and complemented well by the meaty, slightly peppery glaze. As for the risotto, think unsweetened (and unsalted) rice pudding and you’ll get the idea.

I tried to get an espresso to end my meal, but unconscionably (for a restaurant that calls itself Europa) you can’t get one. In case you’re thinking I should have asked for a Greek coffee, I tried that too. I never did ask about the infused vodka’s, however.

The Lunch—the publication of which has become tardy of late due to the busy schedules of the protagonists—savored the delights of Café Europa and found them singularly unappetizing and about the only fun that can be had is with the typos in the menu and the rather hilarious connection of the owner’s family with a Greek myth.

The restaurant is located in the Interchange tower in the spot formerly occupied by the defunct restaurant and Jazz Bar, Yvette’s. There aren’t any major changes to the layout; indeed the old Yvette bar seems to have survived the metamorphoses. The décor’s emphasis is on wood, glass and heavy carpeting. There is an open floor plan with the bar in one corner and a buffet table laid across what could be a dance floor. Another unsavory touch is the displaying of the daily specials by the hostesses desk, presumably to save time as the specials can be quickly pointed out before being led to a table. The problem with this scheme is that for someone with a squeamish disposition—that would be me—the sight of congealing fat and the occasional strand of hair interlaced with the pasta special can be off-putting. The specials of the day included a salmon dish, a frittata and a pasta of sorts.

We were led to our table by a friendly hostess who inquired if we’d ever dined there before? I replied, perhaps unwisely, that not in this incarnation. This prompted a "what’s that?" to which I, wisely, declined an answer. We were now offered water with a slice of lemon that I refused (the lemon that is) and A after an initial refusal opted for it. Perhaps his stomach was still uneasy after the open-casket display of the specials. Fresh bread was brought to our table and the dipping plate was prepared with the above-mentioned flourish. I had a Beringer Estate pinot noir from a bottle that had perhaps outlived its useful life.

The menu opens up to a tapas section that includes staples like calamari, shrimp, mussels, ahi tuna and some unusual items like dates with Serrano ham. The dates and Serrano ham were described as "dates stuffed with smoked mozzarella cheese and wrapped with Serrano ham topped with honey served with frisse and bacon shallot vinaigrette" and that’s what we chose. Unfortunately the dates were too warm and gooey and the ham was dry to the point of being brittle. There is a good selection of soups & salads on the menu and there appears to be a special fondness for the word: dujour. There is soup dujour, fresh seafood dujour (that seems to find a place under the soups somehow), and the fritats dujour (also under the Soups column). The salads continue the Europa-Greek connection with names like Crete salad, Europa salad, and Zeus chopped salad. There are seven pastas & entrées and of course there is a pasta dujour. I think both A & I had been shell-shocked by the specials at the entry and over a mild protestation by A we both chose something from the entrée section of the menu. I had the grilled beef tenderloin with a red wine demi-glaze, fingerling potatoes with mushrooms and caramelized onions. I had allowed the beef to be cooked to the chef’s discretion, a mistake in this case because the meat was over done. The red wine demi-glaze had been evaporated (no doubt by overcooking!) and the mushrooms had a distinctly burnt, liverish taste to them. All in all a dish only moderately acceptable. I had a bite of A’s pork and that seemed decent by comparison.

The desserts include the infamous "desert dujor", an unforgivable typo, although one that I have made myself. Between the panna cotta and banana foster there was nothing attractive in the dessert section to tempt us and we left it that. A’s request for an espresso was denied due to a lack of an espresso machine, a revelation that almost caused A’s glasses to slip off the bridge of his nose.