Flavorful, diverse menu keeps Bambu Café cooking

It's been two and a half years since Brandon Kahlich opened the understated Bambu Café in Grosse Pointe Farms, and at first, it may have seemed the prototype of a ladies-who-lunch place, with its collection of small-framed mirrors, etched-glass wall sconces and white linen-covered tables in a single small room.

This chef/proprietor, however, was not content merely to offer sedate little salads and tea sandwiches. Against all odds, he's kept the place going with his ambitious Asian-tinged menu (he spent two years in Thailand cooking at the Banyan Tree Resort) and such dishes as rice paper-wrapped summer rolls, chicken and vegetable potstickers, a Mideastern meze plate and some of the best jumbo lump crab cakes around.

Now he's thrown open the double doors, adding an array of house-made ice creams in a display case right at the entrance, as well as expanding his menu with a list of signature pizzas, heralded on banners that flank the doors.

Bright turquoise umbrellas shade a couple of wrought-iron tables on the sidewalk, which adds a few more seats to the 34 inside.

The new pizza menu includes choices as carefully designed as everything else here. There's the Milano with fennel sausage, portabello mushrooms, grilled onions, basil, marinara sauce and mozzarella; the Goats Cheese with artisanal chevre, spinach, pine nuts, roma tomatoes and basil; and the seafood B.L.T. with grilled Scottish salmon, Gulf shrimp, smoked bacon, spinach, tomatoes, mozzarella and garlic aioli, each atop a rustic hand-formed crust. The ladies-who-lunch are now the ladies-who-munch.

The French-style, custard-based ice cream Kahlich makes is as individual as the pizzas. Flavors include dark chocolate, mocha-almond, lemon and Asian vanilla teamed with coconut. As soon as the Michigan cherries are ripe, that flavor will be added, he says, as will some fruit sorbets.

Although the new pizza and ice cream options are the news items, Bambu's regular menu shouldn't be overlooked.

Among the notable items are his lovely soups, including a creamy tomato basil; his take on the Cuban sandwich, made with shaved prosciutto, honey turkey, avocado, pickles and a mix of mustard and mayonnaise; and such interesting salads as the Asian salmon, grilled teryaki salmon atop green, cucumbers, tomatoes and a scattering of honey peanuts.

And for dessert, if ice cream doesn't happen to appeal, there are his signature cupcakes, their frosting mimicking an array of flowers. They've been a hit from the start.

Bambu may have gotten more casual, but it still offers the niceties expected on the Hill, linen napkins, crisp white paper over linen cloths, handsome (and notably comfortable) chairs and courteous service.

abraham67@comcast.net">abraham67@comcast.net (313) 222-1475