To describe my enthusiasm for The Aroma Club, I’ll start with the summer borscht. Normally, I hate cold soup. I haven’t had a gazpacho I like, for instance. At The Aroma Club, the summer borscht has a purple broth and wonderful fresh beet flavor. With too many borschts the fresh beet flavor gets cooked right out. One member of the group liked it so much she’s ordering it to feed 75 at her son’s wedding reception this summer.
And they have other interesting takes on Russian/Slavic dishes and from places like Georgia and Uzbekistan. I got to try these during the semi-annual Russian Food Festival and again during a Greater Reno Grub and Gripe Group dinner. Everyone agreed the food was exquisite and different.
I liked almost all the dishes but I think for my two favorites I will go with the mushroom appetizer and with satsivi chicken, or chicken in a thick walnut paste. Sadly I didn’t get any details on the mushrooms used in the appetizer or the method of preparation, but I’m a sucker for mushrooms and these delivered the mushroom flavor. I’d say look at my photo.
The satsivi chicken is served cold. It is coated with a heavy, delicious paste of ground walnuts. Again very nice flavors.
Two dishes that rotate in and out of The Aroma Club menu also showed up at our GRGAGG dinner. The stuffed cabbage was delicious. It had a nice tomato sauce on the outside and tender cabbage. The stuffing was a bit softer than the stuffed cabbage my mom used to make but was quite delicious. We also had pelmeni, a dumpling supposedly introduced to the Russians by the Mongols. It’s a cousin to Chinese dumplings. It seems like they’re cooked in a soup but served without the soup. The dough was tasty and the meat filling, I think pork, was also tasty.
We all got a half of a chiburekki or chiburek, a fried meat turnover. This does not rotate on the regular menu but shows up at the Russian Food Festival and special dinners. It was nicely done with nicely seasoned meat and perfectly cooked crust.
The Russian potato salad is a good take on regular potato salad. The eggplant appetizer tasted great when served on their rye bread. I also loved the house-made farmer’s cheese. We got it as an appetizer and again at the end in a blintz served with a semi-sweet blueberry compote.
At the GRGAGG meal everyone was happily stuff. The way The Aroma Club normally works is that the owner will make a batch of food, saying stuffed cabbage, and sell that until it runs out. Then she will make a batch of something else. In winter she seems to rotate among borscht, lentil soup and sometimes sorrel soup.
The owner opened The Aroma Club as a perfume store and coffee shop about nine years ago. She still sells specialty perfumes but the focus of her store behind Round Table Pizza in Reno Town Mall is food. One of our group members proclaimed an Aroma Club latte the best he’s had in Reno.
The food is different and tasty and deserves the attention of foodies in Reno.
The Aroma Club
Reno Town Mall
4001 S Virginia St
Reno, NV 89502
775-432-7963
Thank you Steve for organizing it; what a great meal! I think I liked the Borscht and the stuffed cabbage the best. The dumplings were great too. And yes, the summer borscht is being added to the (admittedly very eclectic) menu for my son's wedding celebration this summer. We are looking for vegetarian items that reflect our various and varied heritages....and since my grandparents were from Russia (Well, Latvia, actually) somehow borscht seemed appropriate. And it is vegetarian, can be vegan if you choose to leave off the sour cream, and absolutely delicious! Perfect for a summer meal; the pure taste of beets in a bowl! PS: the price of the meal (around $35 per person including tax and tip) seemed VERY reasonable for the quantity and quality of food (And no corkage fee!). Check it out, especially if they have a special event. And btw, I declared before receiving it that I couldn't possibly eat a full blintz, and asked for someone to share with me. No one would, and they suggested I could bring half home to share with DH (who sadly missed the dinner as he was traveling for work)...guess what: I might have been stuffed but there was no blintz left to share with DH! Delicious! (The fresh blueberry sauce was wonderful..) I was still stuffed this am!
The owner couldn't be nicer or more attentive as she explained the details and origins of each dish. I was a bit skeptical about the meal as Russian food isn't mentioned with the great cuisines of the world such as French, Italian, etc. Also, Lana's heritage is Ukranian and her mom makes the best borsht(imo) and varenyky, which are Ukranian dumplings. However, I trust Steve's taste implicitely and we were so so happy to attend the dinner.
The summer borscht was a different version from what i'm used to
but was very tasty and refreshing. I also loved the mushrooms and dumplings, but everything was very good. We will certainly be back to try their other delights.
Since this is the grgagg group I did have 1 gripe. WHERE WAS THE CAVIAR!
Sadly, Aroma Club is closing. This is tasty food. They will have their last Russian Food Festival Nov. 7 and Nov. 8.
Here is the Facebook announcement:
VERY IMPORTANT NEWS!!!
Nov 7-8 our last Russian Food Festival. Hours 1pm till 5-6 pm
We'll post the food menu for that day some time later
November 20 (Friday) is our last day .
We want to say good bye and THANK YOU to all our customers , many of whom became our friends in this 9.5 years.
After 4 PM we'll close doors and will be opened for private party with our friends that would like to eat and drink whatever we'll have left. we'll stay open till 9 pm.
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