Greek
December 6, 2007
Cuisine: Contemporary Greek
Vibe: Unassuming neighborhood spot
Occasion: Family dinner
Don't-Miss Dish: Baked whole fish; rabbit with bergamot
Drink Specialty: Greek wines
Price: Appetizers, $5-$12.95; entrees, $17-$27; desserts, $6.50-$8.50
Reservations Accepted, but not necessary.
Address: 23-01 31 St., at the corner of 23rd Ave. (Astoria, NY)
Phone: (718)267-0800
Capsule: This earnest Greek restaurant delivers a terrific baked whole fish.
You don't dine at Athens Tavern for its decorative nods to the Mediterranean coast. It's a humble Astoria eatery on a street with a healthy scattering of Greek restaurants. There is no vaulted ceiling or breezy white drapery. It's a simple space with white paper-covered tables, windows facing the street and terra-cotta walls and kitschy canvases of men performing a traditional Greek dance.
You go to Athens Tavern for the whole baked fish stuffed with wild greens. On some nights, it's a porgy or a black sea bass. On others, it's a gleaming red snapper that arrives at the table completely intact: eyes, tail and a full set of teeth. The snapper tastes as if it's just been taken off a fishing line and stuffed with a fresh mix of dandelions, watercress and louisa.
"Louisa is a lemon grass herb from Crete," explains co-owner Antonia Sapounakis in a telephone interview. Sapounakis, who hails from Crete, was formerly a waitress at both Avra and Estatiorio Milos in Manhattan. She and co-owner Nikos Gregoriou, secured Michelin-starred chef Yiannis Baxevanis, to oversee their "gastro-taverna" menu. Noted for his modern Greek cooking at Yiorti restaurant in Athens, Baxevanis lends this Astoria kitchen a revolving roster of his sous chefs from the Greek capital.
Other than their roots, Sapounakis and Baxevanis share an adoration of Cretan cuisine and its abundance of fresh herbs. Baxevanis even hand-plucks many of the exotic seasonings on Athens Tavern's menu himself.
A roasted chicken, served butterflied, is garnished with a fistful of fresh thyme, rosemary and sage. A whole rabbit, marinated overnight in red wine, gets a heavy dose of bergamot. The meat is fragrant and juicy, served on velvety, mashed sweet potatoes. A garlicky eggplant spread is streaked with Cretan barley rusk, which provides just enough earthy balance to an otherwise smooth meze.
You are apt to find a better spread of signature Greek starters at other establishments around the city. Here, an unpleasantly thick taramosalata showed no tangible evidence of carp roe; a homemade pie stuffed with leeks, spinach and Mizithra cheese tasted chalky; and though nicely charred on the outside, the grilled octopus was tough with overbearing strides of fennel and anise.
When you have a regular rotation of chefs in the kitchen, inconsistencies are inevitable. On one visit, octopus gently sweetened with red dessert wine and wrapped in onion petals made for a supple, nicely balanced appetizer. On another occasion, it came soaked in the wine reduction and indistinguishable, other than by its chewy texture.
But the best of Athens Tavern is the fish selection: porgy, red mullet, shrimps and langoustines, which arrive sweet and moist with subtle strides of lemon, olive oil and the charcoal grill. On a recent visit, a nearby table of 12 ordered 12 whole baked fish. Though it seemed slightly comical, they had the right idea. For better taramosalata or tzatziki - which is not on the menu here - head down the street to Elias Corner. For an excellently cooked snapper that costs $30 and easily feeds three, Athen's Tavern is a premium addition to the neighborhood's Greek classics.
January 23, 2007
222 W. 79th St., btwn. Broadway & Amsterdam
(212)873-0200
TYPE: Rustic Greek cuisine
Chef-owner Michael Psilakis has reinvented his modern Greek restaurant, Onera, transforming it into a peasant-style Greek. Perhaps, the Upper West Side wasn't the most ideal neighborhood to introduce definitively ambitious, upscale Greek fare. While most restaurants opt for extravagant facelifts, Psilakis has appropriately given the space a make under, renaming it Kefi. Having stripped the subterranean spot of its upscale accoutrements, he's reconceived it as a casual neighborhood restaurant for Greek home-cooking. Gone are the white linens and offal tasting menus, replaced by butcher block tabletops and family-style dishes. Instead of chandeliers, undulating waves of blue & white fabric now hang from the ceiling, evoking a beachy vibe.
After the sudden closing of Dona, where Psilakis had ventured into southern-European fare and successfully established himself as a chef to be reckoned with, he now seems to be retracing his roots back to his childhood in Greece. Michael himself asserts, "Kefi is my mother's cooking." The menu is a petite & simple selection of traditional peasant dishes: lamb souvlaki, mousaka, crispy calamari and meatball soup.
Already buzzing with a local, low-key crowd, I grabbed a table in the slightly cramped, but quaint dining room and headed straight for the wine menu, which is exclusively Greek and unusually poetic. One might think that descriptions like, "its rich bouquet unfolds with dried figs and prunes, and a whiff of pepper and vanilla," are out of place on a wine menu at a family-style restaurant, but the prices aren't - most wines by the glass don't exceed $8, a steal in NYC, but potentially god awful. Thankfully, there weren't. I chose an Athiri ($6), a lovely, floral glass of white that drank a little too well.
Let's get down to the food - the openers included a classic meze of the cuttlefish, feta and octopus sorts. There are homey meatballs washed in a pleasing tomato sauce, specked with whole garlics and olives. Even the warm feta with pita, tossed with fresh onions, tomatoes, & salty anchovies, is a simple, but gratifying appetizer. But the best of all, was a sublimely tender and sweet grilled octopus, lifted by lemon, fresh onions, parsley and bright tomatoes, all perched on a springy, chickpea & black eyed pea salad. Unfortunately, the manouri cheese & spinach-stuffed cuttlefish, still managed to be bland, further hurt by a mushy tomato pedestal.
I didn't know the Greeks had such a way with pasta, but Michael opened my eyes with celestial ribbons of flat egg pasta, tangled around succulent shreds of rabbit meat, sweet caramelized onions and nutty nuggets of graviera cheese. It almost seemed wrong that such a blissfully rabbit-rich pasta dish, rivalling some of the best in the city, cost only $10.95, but who am I to look a gift horse in the mouth? Delicate, sheep's milk cheese-stuffed raviolis, topped with crunchy fried onions, were lightly brushed with a brown butter & sage sauce.
As far as entrees go, I'd head for the grilled hanger steak: juicy and supple, the sliced meat was generously topped with sauteed onions & sea salt, cleverly paired with melting nibbles of haloumi cheese and warm lentils. The shrimp & scallop souvlaki was predictable and not worth investigating, in light of all the other satisfying dishes to be had at Kefi. I finished with a deconstructed halva dessert, light & airy chocolate mousse, doused with a tahini sauce, and accompanied by crushed sesame seeds.
While Kefi seems like any other neighborhood eatery, rustic Greek has been elevated to a savory plane at Kefi. It may be back to basics for Michael Psilakis, but he more than does justice to earthy Greek fare on the Upper West Side. While this spot is realistically limited by its Upper West Side location, the imminent opening of Anthos, a modern Greek restaurant set to open midtown (in the Acqua Pazza space), will likely whisk him back into New York City's limelight. Who knows - Psilakis might just do for Greek cuisine what Batali did for Italian.
Until we eat again,
Restaurant Girl
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May 30, 2006
250 Park Avenue South (at 20th St.)
(212)995-0242
TYPE: Mediterranean
Where the food might seem an accessory to the trendy scene (the music's just a tad too loud), Barbounia delivers a unexpectedly satisfying eating experience. The menu highlights meze (small plates), souvlaki (skewers), and entrees as well as a stand-out whole fish selection: baked, grilled, or broiled. First, my night began with an "olympia" cocktail, a seductive (not too sweet) elixir of champagne, pear, Beefeater and fresh lemon juice. Next, I sampled an exceptionally tender and sweet charred octopus, gently tossed with lemon zest, plump grape yellow tomatoes and fava beans with the perfect kick of sherry vinaigrette. The lamb gouvetsi was a tasty stew of savory minced lamb, tomato ragu and risotto, but much too rich a dish to order as an appetizer (I dare suggest it be relocated to the entree section).
Think fish when it comes to your main course. I tried a delicate yet crispy-skinned red snapper sharply accented by artichoke hearts, olives and sweet red peppers. The branzino (I got it grilled) was expertly prepared, a fresh, flaky meat with a touch of lemon and olive oil. While the desserts stumbled, I decided to cap off my visit with a brandied apricot cocktail, a toothsome end to my Barbounia vacation.
Until we eat again,
Restaurant Girl
