It's
Greek For Me
Ziziki provides the answer to an oft-asked question
The Dallas Observer - Mary Brown
Malouf
August 18-24, 1994
|
| Where do you spend your own money
when you go out to eat? |
| It's one of the questions I'm most often
asked. It comes right behind "what's your favorite restaurant?"
and "where do you go for Mexican food?" People seem
to have the impression that I keep the real information
to myself. |
| The money question is an odd one. It implies
that my own money is worth more than someone else's - that I
don't consider your money's worth when I'm reviewing.
(Actually, I work for a publication whose budget is nearly as
limited as my own.) People assume that if I decide to spend
my own money somewhere, then it must be because it's "the
best." |
| Actually, the place where I choose to spend
my dining dollars may not be the place you would choose. Our
meals are filled with memories and associations that have little
to do with whether a chef is talented, whether the service was
professional or whether the wine list was reasonable. Our enjoyment
has everything to do with an emotional reaction to the food
and our predilection for certain tastes, and not so much to
do with some objective standard of quality. |
| What you want, of course, is both. |
| Which brings me to Ziziki. Costa Arabatzis'
first Dallas venture was the Greek Bistro on Greenville, which
was related to his family's restaurant on Maui. Later, the name
changed to M Street Grill, because the Greek moniker seemed
too ethnic for this white-bread town, leading people to expect
the usual mediocre saganaki and grape-leaves menu - which is
exactly wrong. |
| Now, still searching for the best audience,
Costa has sold the Greenville Avenue location and opened in
the Travis Walk space that used to house Deli Planet. It's hard
to predict whether this will turn out to be a good idea or not
- Lower Greenville may be tough, but Travis Walk is a real mission.
Sipango has certainly livened up the neighborhood; it's hard
to tell whether that's actually been helpful to other businesses.
Sipango's crowd seems only interested in Sipango - there are
no substitutes - and the general population wants to avoid the
resulting valet congestion. |
| What I can say for sure is that
the food didn't suffer in the move. This is basically the same
fare Arabatzis served in his other restaurants, whatever they
were called at the time. |
| The defunct deli was a spiffy space; it
didn't take much to make it into a stylish restaurant. The black
and white floor remained, an antique bar (a gift from the chef's
father) was added, a trompe l'oeil painting adds a lighthearted
touch. There's an open grill in the semi-open kitchen, and there
is a deli case displaying pastichio and desserts. (We saw several
people come in and pick up orders to go.) The waitresses are
hip, dressed fashionably in vests over black and white. |
| This is a natural lunch location, and the
midday menu's high is $6.95 - one of the best meals in town
for the price. Likewise, this is a reasonable place to stop
for a drink - Ziziki has a full bar and a wine list focusing
on bottles under $25 - most are under $20. (Local restaurateur
Phil Cobb once snorted in skepticism at the idea that I could
judge good value when I wasn't spending my own dollars. Bull-oney.
There's no such thing as a good restaurant that doesn't offer
good value - it's part of the definition - and my job is to
distinguish good restaurants from poor ones.) |
| This setting is fine, but as I said, it's
the food that has me following Arabatzis from place to
place. It's basically Greek food, but not straight off the boat,
so to speak. Instead, these are recipes that have been handed
down a couple of generations, that have been changed and adapted
by use into a personal interpretation of the cuisine. This food
is less oily and brighter-tasting (I'd like not to say
lighter) than traditional Greek fare, and some of it is not
traditional Greek fare anyway. It's needlessly obtuse to say
the best Greek food in town isn't Greek food at all. (Do I hear
one hand clapping?) |
| I love the strong flavors, the simplicity,
the themes that play throughout all this food. A favorite, for
instance, is the "Ziziki bread" (called something
else at the past restaurants): a soft, homemade round of pita
is brushed with olive oil and garlic, topped with herbs and
cheese, and glazed under the broiler. Dip it into the cool tzatziki
sauce - yogurt mixed with diced cucumber. The new potato skins
are a variation: tiny, quartered and roasted new potatoes, sauteed
briefly with slivers of sweet onion and pepper, are glazed with
lacy cheese and served with the same sauce. A pizzette is simply
a round of the bread, topped with fresh basil leaves, slices
of roma tomatoes, melted mozzarella and goat cheese. |
| Grecian chicken, marinated with lemon juice
and rosemary, is simply grilled: it's served with the broiled
new potatoes and a Greek salad of greens with cucumbers, chunks
of feta, kalamata olives, tomatoes and onion. The Mediterranean
salad is what I would actually call a Greek salad - it's the
traditional toss of the same ingredients without any lettuce.
A special entree of moist red snapper was cloaked in a sauce
of tomatoes pureed with cinnamon and oregano; the pastichio
was a softly savory layering of sweet ground lamb, macaroni
and lush bechamel. |
| In other words, entrees - again - recycle
a lot of the same food, relying on changing proportions of the
same ingredients: sweet meats, yeasty bread, tart feta, fresh
salad and tangy yogurt - to keep things exciting. |
| And the answer to the question is, I spend
my own money at Ziziki's. |
| Why? Because the service is good, the place
is pretty, and it gives good value, but mostly because I love
this food like I love my mother's. |
