restaurant

Café Zitoune

Café Zitoune (Marseille)

© Minou Sabahi

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Not elbow grease but pure zit zitoune (olive oil) was all textile artist Sarah Espeute needed to transform her old studio into a haven for a new kind of coffee addict, fueled by lattes and extra-virgin olive oil. Gone is the old sewing machine, sitting pretty in its place is a shiny new Marzocco, installed by Ahcène Amrouz and Gaëlle Cornibert (two escapees from the worlds of media and design), who now tinker with the percolator to their heart’s content in their charming, jumbly, two-story coffee shop with an industrial-style windowed facade. But the olive on the cake is the French-Iranian chef Minou Sabahi (ex-Chardon in Arles, Le Galinier in Lourmarin), who trained up Ahcène in the kitchen, to fire out tasty treats from breakfast through to snack time. The day we went for lunch, the menu was delightfully Mediterranean, with a Greek-Maghrebi twist: baghrir (the famous thousand-hole pancake) with butter and rosemary syrup; Greek salad remixed with chermoula; soft-boiled eggs served with tartines topped with felfel (a red pepper and tomato condiment); not to mention the Kalamata olive and white chocolate cookie, which is worth the trip alone. //Folayemi Abimbola

FEELING THIRSTY? All the coffee shop greatest hits, bang in tune with the times, like espresso made with beans sourced from Gringe (€2), chicory coffee (€4), filter coffee with beans from Tisserie (€3.50) and dulce de leche frappé coffee (€5). Plus homemade syrups, apricot and za’atar sparkling water from Douze, and Pac lemon cordial (€4.50 each).

PRICE: Breakfast €4-12, lunch €9.50-12, pastries €3.50-7.

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