Caspian Persian Grill

The menu here is chock-full of wondrous Persian cuisine, which is a politically innocuous way of saying Iranian food. This may seem quite exotic, but many of the offerings here are surprisingly familiar, like hummus, stuffed grape leaves, and kebabs of chicken, salmon, tenderloin, and lamb -- all tasty renditions but nothing to declare a fatwah over. It's the other items listed that catapult Caspian past the ubiquitous, formula-driven pita emporiums. The distinctive dishes include khoresht stews of beef, chicken, or lamb; fragrant ashe reshteh, which is a soup plumped with kidney beans, garbanzos, lentils, and noodles and greened with spinach, chives, cilantro, parsley, and mint; and khoresht fesenjoon, a chicken dish with an audacious pomegranate/walnut sauce -- jars of which are available for sale next door at Caspian's grocery, Nu Taste.