To walk into Juju’s Mediterranean Kitchen is one of those adventures where you stumble onto something that is, well, real — if you were in a foreign country, you’d know this is where locals go; either that or you’ve accidentally opened the door and walked into someone’s home.

The saga of Juju’s, however, also reflects Napa as it’s evolving. For many years Carl and Joumana Shweiky operated Gina’s Kitchen on Main Street, where along with sandwiches, homemade soups and substantial breakfasts, they served Mediterranean specialties based on their own recipes from their native Lebanon — falafel, kabobs, salads, dolmas and the wonderful creations like baba-ghanough, hummus and mujadara.

After losing their lease, they set about searching Napa for an affordable place where they could continue to feed their fans at affordable prices, and finally they found a test kitchen on California Boulevard. They decided to go into the catering business, which they named Juju’s Kitchen, Juju being Joumana’s nickname.

While the catering business has taken off, old clients, often confused, were turning up at the new site, hoping for a spontaneous meal, and Carl and Joumana decided to remodel the large kitchen to include a drop-in area and a shop that sells hard-to-find ingredients for Middle Eastern cooking, including spices, pomegranate molasses, kefir and canned fava beans. At the beginning of August, Juju’s reopened, and people can now come by to pick up lunch or dinner, shop or eat at one of the new diner’s two tables.

The result is a homey, welcoming place, intimate, friendly and fun. The small table inside against a vivid scarlet wall is covered with an embroidered table cloth; another table is outside on the sidewalk. The neat grocery corner is intriguing, and Juju, assisted by her daughter, Maya, can usually be found hard at work behind the counter.

The food, however, remains the star attraction of Juju’s. The selection of salads, sold by the pound, range from $6.50 for the yogurt and cucumber, mixed with mint and garlic, to $8.95 a pound for the “Big Fat Greek Orzo” salad, a mixture of orzo pasta, feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, scallions and roasted peppers, with a homemade vinaigrette. Another favorite is the fatoosh salad ($7.75), which dresses romaine lettuce with a lemon-mint vinaigrette and adds a sprinkling of baked pita chips to the tomato, cucumber, red onion and bell pepper mix. All in all, Juju’s offers 13 different salads, including pasta ($6.75), fresh fruit ($6.75), chicken ($8.25) and albacore tuna ($8.75).

Juju’s specialties are the kabobs, which range from $8.75 for a veggie kabob to $12.50 for the marinated lamb; the marinated beef and chicken kabobs are $10.95. The kefta kabob ($10.95) is a mix of spiced, ground lamb and beef on a skewer. Orders of kabobs come with a serving of Basmati rice, hummus, Lebanese salad and pita bread.

Juju’s also creates wraps with marinated chicken or keftah ($7.95) or falafel ($6.75), the traditional spiced, chickpea patties. Two vegetable wraps, the Greek and the garden wrap (grilled vegetables in a ginger sauce, avocado, brown rice, hummus and tahini) are each $6.95.

Of special interest, and not to be found many places in Napa, are what Juju calls “dips and such,” which are also sold by the pound: the light and lemony hummus ($6.95), baba-ganough (roasted eggplant with lemon, garlic, yogurt and tahini ($8.95); mujadra (lentils and cracked wheat with caramelized onions and olive oil ($6.95); muhamara (roasted bell pepper, walnuts and pomegranate molasses ($9.95) and tabouli, ($7.50), which combines finely chopped parsley and mint with tomato, onion, lemon juice and cracked wheat.

For those looking for the old Gina’s sandwiches, they also prepare them to order, and offer several specialty sandwiches, like the Greek (cucumber, feta cheese, tomato, hummus, Kalamata olive and lettuce on a wheat roll ($6.75), and the valley pesto (turkey, Havarti cheese with homemade pesto mayonnaise on a ciabatta roll ($6.75).

For desserts, there are two kinds” homemade baklava, pistachio ($1.50) and walnut ($1.25), as well as a date dome, made of baked semolina flour that is stuffed with dates ($1.75), and mamoul, semolina flour stuffed with pistachios ($1.75). Beverages include Turkish coffee ($2.50) and pomegranate lemonade ($2.75).

Juju’s will continue to offer catering, including boxed lunches, but it’s good to know they’re back and you don’t have to plan ahead if the mood strikes you for something just a little different, that’s fresh, homemade, and, oh gosh, we probably shouldn’t mention it, but healthy — it’s that great Mediterranean diet.

Juju’s Mediterranean Kitchen is at 3375 California Blvd., near Trancas and next to the Mini Garden restaurant. To call in orders, the telephone number is 226-6537. The Web site is www.jujuskitchen.com.