Considering I eat hot sauce with every meal, a place called Cayenne sounds like it would be right up my alley.

During Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, (incidentally, it’s now the year 5770) my writing partner and I headed to a Mediterranean place for lunch in a popular Jewish neighborhood.

Cayenne is a casual yet nicely appointed restaurant serving upscale, miscellaneous “Mediterranean” food. I just Googled the place to find out exactly what Mediterranean countries influence the cuisine. Apparantely, Lebanon and Morroco.

I ordered the Byblos Salad. Yum Central.

Chicken, pesto, walnuts, feta, sundried tomatoes tossed in a basil dressing. Yum Boulevard.

Days later, I want this salad again. I want to be this salad.

Now, here’s where our casual lunch became a horror movie.

On our way walking to the restaurant, we passed by a large Jewish woman in traditional black garb. Her face was deathly pale and her hair was finger-in-a-light-socket frizzy.

She was dragging her feet and she looked completely dead. It was disturbingly amusing.

Until the next corpse, this time an elderly woman, also dressed in black, scraped by us, her body contorted to the side, unnaturally. Her eyes were as black as the circles underneath them.

Ok, this is getting eerie.

We then went to get Clyde some fro-yo across the street. A teenage boy in orthodox clothing donning a yamaka began sliding along the wall towards us, like a zombie. His lips were filled with red sores, his eyes were as dead as the other two living dead we encountered before.

Get me outta here!! I was a little freaked out.

Of course, there could be some kind of rehabilitation home nearby that let out it’s “tenants” for lunch.

Too bad no one informed the poor cadavers that they were, in fact, deceased and no longer require sustenance (except human flesh).

7169 Beverly Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90036-2548
(323) 857-1252
www.cayennecafe.net