Big Taste Of Caribbean At Tiny Restaurant Paseo

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XX Paseo, 4225 Fremont Ave. N. Cuban and Caribbean. ($) Lunch and dinner ($2.25 to $7.50) 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; from 3 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday. No alcohol. No credit cards. No smoking. No reservations (no tables). Information and takeout: 545-7440. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Very little restaurant; very big flavors.

"Have you discovered Paseo yet?" asked a foodie friend the other day.

"No," I replied to Mauny Kaseburg, a food-show broadcaster on a couple of local radio stations.

"It's above Fremont," she said, "and very easy to miss."

The white frame building was small, trimmed in light green, with a couple of rudimentary bamboo awnings swaying in the rain. A translucent, pale-green sign was tucked around the corner of the structure.

Inside, a tall, thin cook - hair bound up in what looked like a macrame snood - worked fast. He looked familiar. I ordered a Grilled Pork Sandwich ($4.50) and slid onto one of the nine wooden stools perched in front of an L-shaped, glass-topped counter. There were eight more chairs - but they were outside, wet and waiting for the overflow. Paseo (the name means stroll in Spanish) was not waiting for the world to jog through its doors and couldn't handle it if it did.

The cook, Chet Corpt, introduced himself. We had met years ago

at another small Caribbean restaurant, he said. Islabelle on Northlake.

Who own's this place? I asked as the back door thumped open and a bustling man in a sack-like black hat entered.

"The man himself," said Corpt, "Lorenzo Lorenzo!"

He's back; Lorenzo Lorenzo, Cuban-born, Yakima-reared creator of the old Islabelle. Quietly operating, almost in secret, in upper Fremont.

Best pork sandwich in town

"This was practically a stealth restaurant," the cook said as Lorenzo left. "We've been open more than a year and just got the sign up recently. Lorenzo wanted it that way."

The best grilled pork sandwich in the city arrived ($4.50) with thick-fried onions, wads of romaine, cilantro and mayo on a superb Macrina Bakery bun.

The place filled quickly. The first four customers were all food professionals. Kaseburg and I, Dave Brown of Carso's Pasta (he's Carso) and Larry Wong of the landmark Golden Pheasant Noodle Co. in the International District.

The pork was thinly pounded, marinated in a "secret" sauce (ginger, garlic, lime juice and who knows?) and flash-grilled. Messy but lovely. "Papas" is not somebody's father's possession, but a Cuban version of baked potatoes ($2.25; $3.50 with black beans). They are stuffed with chicken in red sauce, basted with olive oil, capers and garlic, and then shaped into a flattened cone like a giant timbale. A nearby construction worker was devouring two of them.

The Prawn Sandwich ($5.50), Lorenzo says, is his best. Others say it's the Chicken Breast ($4.75), also pounded, marinated and grilled. Loved both.

Generous dinner plates

Dinners ($6 to $7.50) are served all day. They include rice, black beans, a disc of corn (so-so) and more greens than a major herbivore can handle. The lunch sandwiches and the Papas are served until 5 p.m.

The Half Chicken Dinner ($5.75) is a big favorite. The plump birds are split, marinated, roasted until tender and kept covered in a slow oven until ordered, when they are swabbed with more marinade and grilled.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin ($7.25) gets similar treatment; so, in fact, do the Chicken Breasts ($7.25). The nightly seafood special (recently an inch-thick halibut steak) goes for $7.50.

I've enjoyed the Scallops in Red Sauce ($7.50) sauteed in olive oil and garlic with a red pepper-tomato-celery-onion sauce. It's served over two large mounds of perfect white rice. Vegetarians can get tofu prepared much the same way ($6.25), with a range of heat from one to four stars (two is tolerable; three is getting serious).

Almost all of the menu items are available as side orders at lower prices ($3 to $4).

There is little that's elegant about Paseo. It's plain, clean, cheerful, cheap and functional. Salsa and Carribean rock music thumps nonstop from the open kitchen. No wine; no beer (which is too bad; some Mexican brews would pair beautifully with most of the menu). And it's fun.

Lorenzo has built it up slowly; Islabelle, he thinks, was overwhelmed by too much early attention.

Go in small numbers. (Copyright, 1995, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.) John Hinterberger, who writes the weekly restaurant review in Tempo and a Sunday food column in Pacific, visits restaurants anonymously and unannounced. He pays in full for all food, wines and services. Interviews of the restaurants' management and staff are done only after meals and services have been appraised. He does not accept invitations to evaluate restaurants.