A Delicious Taste of Georgia (As In Eastern Europe, Not the Deep South) in Palo Alto
Giant soup-filled dumplings at Bevri.
Russian food is certainly not something you find on every street corner.
Georgian cuisine? Well, you have to squint even harder for that.
Fortunately, though, if you point your eyes in just the right direction, you will find what is thought to be the only Georgian restaurant in Northern California.
Bevri opened in downtown Palo Alto in 2018. It is a gem of a place founded by Google employee Pavel Sirotin with his brother and sister-in-law. Russian-born Sirotin noticed the dearth of Georgian restaurants when he moved to the Bay Area a few years ago. So he decided to open his own — despite not ever owning a restaurant before.
The open kitchen, where bags of spice blends and jars of preserves are displayed for sale, too.
The intimate dining room.
When my friend and I took our Russian-born friend Lina out for her birthday recently, we couldn’t think of a better place to celebrate than Bevri, where we paid our own tab at the end. It even gave Lina a fun opportunity to converse in Russian with the waitstaff.
Bevri celebrates the cuisine of Georgia, located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, which was once part of the Soviet Union. You can see influences from both those regions in this hearty, comforting food.