Gardens of Salonica: Feast Like a Greek

[Jeremy Iggers]

What a terrific time we had at Gardens of Salonica last night! We didn't wear togas, and nobody set any cheese on fire (a tradition that hails from Detroit, not Greece), but this was as festive a dining experience as I have had in a long time. About 30 of us took over the main dining room at one long table (actually, about 10 tables pushed together), and made our way through a Greek feast, accompanied by bottles of rustic Greek wines. The event was billed as a "light dinner, " but that's a little like calling the blizzard of 1991 a "light snowfall."
Everything was served family-style, starting with a Greek salad, grilled and plates of tarama (cod roe), tzatziki (cucumber and yogurt dip, and and kolokithopita, little Macedonian pinwheels with a savory zucchini filling. Bottles of dry white Apelia. robust red Tsantali and piney Retsina were brought to the table, and then came the meats - long ribbons of gyros, and grilled skewers of chicken and lamb souvlaki, followed by yigandes, a vegetarian dish of broad beans in a tomato sauce. Dessert was hardly necessary at this point, but we forced ourselves through several more delicious rounds, including chocolate truffles and little miniature pieces of baklava, and a larger portion of flaky filo pastry stuffed with a custard filling, and then a bougatsa, a beggars purse filled with baked apple, accompanied by vanilla ice cream.
This wasn't fussy food, or refined gastronomy. Rather it was the kind of hearty, flavorful fare that goes best with an evening where it is the time spent in each others company that matters most. With a smaller group, chef Anna Christoforides might have led us in some Greek dances, but the dining room was too crowded, and by the end of the meal, some of the diners may have been too full for anything so vigorous.

The price was more than reasonable - $18 per person, including wines. Chef Anna priced the dinner so low because it was tied to the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival, which Gardens of Salonica sponsors, but said she could offer the same menu, for parties of 18 or more, for $25 per person, plus tax and gratuity. A day and a half of advance notice is required. For groups of $10 or more, she also offers a more elaborate version of this dinner for $30-$40, also including wines.

Gardens of Salonica, 19 Fifth St. N.E., Minneapolis, 612-378-0611

[Ben Skinner]

This just looks incredible. I'm now in the mood for Greek.

[Amy Rea]

Is that Besse Maragos, second from right? I haven't seen her in years. I used to work with her at a travel agency. She used to travel to Greece all the time and bring back heavenly olives.

[Lu Lippold]

Yiati den me proskaleses?? Gamisou! Agapo ta ellinika phagia!