Nora Restaurant And Bar Meat-topped meat dumplings and cardamom cocktails

Heading to Lower Greenville for reasons having nothing to do with the opportunity to flaunt open-container laws with special green bottles of domestic light beer: the husband/wife behind FND's Afghan Grill, with their new restaurant, Nora, soft-open next Tuesday. This comfortably upscale, stone-floored dining room will first ply you with appetizers like bulanee (fried leek & potato pastries w/ cilantro & mint sauce) and crispy shrimp wrapped in rice paper, then fried & laid over fancy greens, or as Miss Piggy called it, "the hottest night of my life".

Then they'll hit you with the heavy stuff, from kofta chalao (a meatball stew with fresh spices and dried plum), to badenjan buranee (fried eggplant w/ herbs, yogurt & meat sauce, though it does sound like the name of the coolest guy in Zaranj, who always wears leather jackets even in the summertime), to a wide-ranging kabob lineup that includes rib eye, salmon, lamb chops, and shrimp.

The substantial marble bar is completely unafraid to serve you Turkey's Efes beer, or cocktails like the Stella Nora (cardamom-infused vodka, cucumber, agave, Cointreau), and the gin, cuke, pomegranate & agave Greenville Martini -- outside of St. Pat's, maybe the best wide-mouth beverage on LGV.