Pyramid Scheme

Blue Pyramid in Glendale has a novel concept: Mediterranean Rim food, from Morocco, Greece and Lebanon as well as France and Italy. Amid its wood-oven pizzas, grilled meats and pastas, there are some astonishingly original creations.

The decor--King Tut’s Egypt juxtaposed with Italy and ancient Greece--is all in good fun and slightly over the top. Picture a tasteful version of the Luxor Hotel in Vegas or, perhaps, Disneyland’s Temple of Doom with waiters.

In the main dining room, where a sizable sumac tree rises to the ceiling, the walls have huge murals of a seacoast village and a trompe l’oeil view of a Roman temple. The cover of the menu is a sketched montage of hieroglyphics, the Parthenon, the Eiffel Tower, St. Peter’s Basilica and the Egyptian god of the underworld.

This sketch pretty well represents what comes from this kitchen. The menu is stocked with unheard-of fusion dishes: a wild mushroom Napoleon (made from filo dough) with goat cheese and garlic; pennette with sun-dried tomatoes and Moroccan lamb sausage; pizzas topped with piquant Middle Eastern ingredients.

On my first visit, I nearly sated my appetite just eating bread. You automatically get a basket of warm, fluffy pita and the restaurant’s calling card, a plate streaked with red and green powders. The red is tart ground sumac berries, the green a mixture of wild thyme, oregano and sesame seeds. The idea is to bind the colors together into a paste, using a few drops of the restaurant’s fruity olive oil. Then you dip the bread for a deliciously unfamiliar combination. An excellent complement to this is what the menu calls a tree-ripe trio of olives (picholine, Kalamata and Nicoise).

Blue Pyramid’s pizza crusts are cracker thin with a sourdough tang. The mezzaluna is a crescent-shaped calzone stuffed with spiced beef (basturma), Fontina cheese and spinach, and there are even more exotic pizzas.

The best of them--about the best dish on the whole menu, in fact--is the Pyramid pizza. It’s topped with crisp bits of spicy Lebanese sausage (soujouk), beautifully caramelized onions, some of that irresistible thyme-oregano-sesame mixture, strips of haloumi cheese and a flurry of arugula. It’s possibly the most imaginative pizza I have encountered in the ‘90s, and one of the most appealing.

The Middle Eastern appetizers are as good as they get. The baba ghannouj is a puree of fire-roasted eggplant flavored with a judicious amount of sesame tahini; it has a wonderfully smooth texture and a nut-like aftertaste. The hummus is perfectly blended, and there are excellent grape leaves stuffed with rice, walnuts and herbs. The best antipasto might be the browned risotto cakes, topped with spicy shrimp and a touch of saffron oil.

How about a lamb burger? It’s a lamb patty with cheese (Pecorino and bits of feta) and crushed almonds. For complexity try tonno, an intriguing sandwich of nicely grilled ahi, artichoke hearts and fennel with a penetrating dill vinaigrette.

The kitchen is relatively weak at grilling. The pistachio-crusted salmon is a nice piece of fish and the roasted potatoes and wilted spinach with it are flavorful, but the creamy nut crust is a distraction. Kafta kebab Halabi is supposed to be a ground chicken kebab, but I what I got was a stingy portion of chicken breast and, oddly, it wasn’t ground.

The wild creativity flags at dessert. You can have baklava garnished with scoops of pistachio ice cream, a selection of gelati or the inevitable tiramisu. I recommend a milky shot of the anise-scented Turkish liqueur arrack instead. I’ve been to the top of the Pyramid, and I need a rest.

BE THERE

Blue Pyramid--1000 E. Broadway, Glendale. 11:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Monday-Friday, 5-11:30 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday. Dinner for two, $28-$45. (818) 548-1000.