Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
A St. Pete Beach restaurant offers pureness in Greek flavors and in hospitality.
By CHRIS SHERMAN
© St. Petersburg Times, published October 11, 2001
There's nothing new about Greek food in Pinellas County, even an hour's drive south of the sponge docks.
Not that there needs to be. Sure, there is a movement to refine and redefine Greek cooking as "Mediterranean" and upscale, but even New York's New Wave New Greek places don't stray too far from tomatoes, olive oil, lemon, oregano and feta.
Old Greek favorites, from village salad to moussaka, have long been American comfort foods. Much of the restaurant food we've eaten in the past century, blue plate or white tablecloth, steaks or pizzas or pancakes, especially in the South, came from Greek-American cooks, long before many of the rest of us touched pita bread.
That could be why Athanasios, a proud little Greek restaurant where the plates are white and the tablecloths blue, has become a favorite on the beach with locals as well as tourists.
We have intimate familiarity with the food; they have deep-rooted experience with hospitality. Surely regulars and restaurateurs here have become family; when it reopened after its fall closing, customers rushed back as eagerly as the owners with their three-week-old baby. "It's a girl!" the sign said, and Gulf Boulevard cooed.
Other restaurants have that kind of loyalty. What Athanasios adds is the care in cooking and concern for authenticity, all from owners Athanasios "Tom" (he's also the cook) and Nano Papanikos.
Much of the food is familiar -- and no less beloved -- Greek standards, from gyros to flaming saganaki and cries of "Opa!" A good portion of the rest is Italian veal, pasta and shrimp dishes. It's not an unusual combination, and one that reflects the old debate over which of the ancient cuisines invented everything from toast and tomato sauce to bechamel. Which came first, lasagna or moussaka? Who among us would turn down either one?
Still, you can find impressive examples of Greek cooking here with more purity, and that's what I look for. The Mykonos grouper was good, freshly done with little more than olive oil, olives, tomato and feta and served over spinach. I detected none of the promised basil, but the dish still reflected classical simplicity.
A Greek veal dish was still simpler -- just olive oil, lemon and oregano. These are great flavors, alone and enough for any meat, fish or vegetables. Athanasios does chicken like this, and I'd like to see it do more on the grill -- fish, pork, loukanico -- with these simple things. Rack of lamb is offered on the menu as Paithakia, but the night I had one as a special, the meat was great but the seasoning seemed mostly salt and garlic slices.
Flavors of Greece were at their purest in pikilia, a first-course sampler of appetizers: flaky spanakopita, black olives, tart dolmades and Greece's two great dips, yogurty tzatziki and sea-salty taramasalata caviar spread, with cucumbers and tomatoes. And octopus, marinated to a tenderness that seems a Greek specialty. Don't substitute the less-expensive Greek Traditions platter: It's the same stuff as the house salad plus anchovies and feta, and I prefer feta with more punch.
On the Italian side, linguine pescatore had properly sturdy pasta, crushed tomatoes, olive oil, fish stock and a boatload of seafood. Mussels and clams were in their shells but overcooked; shrimp were better and calamari were superb (Greek cooks must be champions of the whole class of tentacled sea life).
In trimmings, the chicken lemon soup lacked the zest and velvety texture of avgolemono, but the bread was a great crusty Italian roll, and vegetables were old-fashioned home cooking (they were cooked longer than my mom's and were just as meaty).
The brief wine list was long on affordability and far too short on Greek wines; I did get a glass of retsina from Achaia Clauss, a polished maker of the piney stuff, but no roditys and none of the finer Greek wines from mavrodaphnes to new cabernets.
The perfect finish for a meal like this is that simplest of desserts, rice pudding with a sprinkle of cinnamon.
If the Greeks didn't invent that favorite of the Mediterranean, America and much of the world, cooks such as Papanikos have perfected a technique that gives rice pudding especially soothing warmth.
Certainly I'd like to taste more of the earth, fire and sea of Greece (and its olive groves and vineyards), yet the crowd-pleasers are the warm, hearty flavors that have been simmering for generations. At Athanasios, you can eat like one of the family.
Athanasios Greek Italian Cuisine
7115 Gulf Blvd., St. Pete Beach
(727) 363-4414
Hours: 4 to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, Sunday; 4 to 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday.
Reservations: Recommended
Credit cards: Most
Details: Beer, wine.
Prices: Dinners, $8.95 to $21.95.