As lunchtime approached on Monday, I was afraid that Filfillah might have closed its doors.

Our own Elizabeth Millard had tipped me off about the soulful and authentic Turkish restaurant in Columbia Heights via her writeup of it in Heavy Table last year, and I was anxious to make a return visit.

But Filfillah's web site, which was no great shakes when Elizabeth looked at it, had been replaced by one of those creepy this-domain-expired pages that feature a stock photo of a perky blonde lady and a list of topics--"Cash Advance," "Debt Consolidation," "Free Credit Report"--that reek of the sour perfume of failure.

"Do You Know the Rainbow?"

When I called, though, chef Ali Kocak answered, and reminded me where the restaurant was located. "Can you get to Central?" he asked. "Do you know the Rainbow?"

Yes, Filfillah is alive at the corner of Central and 43rd avenues North, right across from a gigantic Rainbow Foods. When I pulled in near noon, there was only one other car in the lot, and it must have been Ali's or his kitchen helper's, because I was the only customer in the expansive dining room.

I just don't understand why this place isn't mobbed. It's the real deal. The beef and lamb shawarma (aka gyro, aka, in Turkey, doner kebab), which I ordered per Elizabeth's recommendation, was tender and moist, two adjectives I don't generally attach to the gyro I consume elsewhere in town, with the deep-dyed, soulful flavor of homemade. The baklava is also the best I've had outside of the former Ottoman Empire.

All This and Bread, Too

But the star of the show was the Turkish bread, baked on the premises and, as it happened, just out of the oven as I sat down. Turks take their bread as seriously as the French do, and Ali's Turkish bread is wonderfully crusty where it's supposed to be, lush and light elsewhere.

Ali sat with me while I ate--there was nobody else to serve--and we swapped life stories; his and my time in Northern California, his years in London, his hotel jobs in Istanbul, my totally touristic visit to that great city. ("Grand Bazaar, Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, right?" he asked. Right.) He reminded me that while you can get shish kebab in Arab and Iranian and even Bosnian restaurants, both shish and kebab are Turkish words.

Ali Kocak is rightfully proud of his homeland and his food and he's waiting for you.

Photo: Ali advancing toward my table with fresh bread