As much as we enjoy it, Greek cuisine is something that Kathy and I have rarely shared with the boys, with the exception of hummus as a snack or maybe some feta crumbled on a pizza or salad. We decided it was time to change that, but we weren’t ready to take on all that delicate phyllo folding, so we headed out one Friday night to Athena’s in Ellisville.
Athena’s humble exterior hides a snazzy interior. In fact, on seeing the white tablecloths and glassware, I wondered if this was a sensible destination for a family with two young boys. But as soon as the first geyser of flame erupted from two booths away, we were glad we’d come. There may not have been much else to keep the boys distracted, but as soon as they saw one of the servers ignite an order of saganaki (flaming Kasseri cheese), they were enthralled.
There was no kids’ menu, though our server assured us the kitchen could handle kid-friendly fare. But we’d come for Greek food, and the boys were eager to try something new – especially if it included fire and cheese. We opted for a number of different “samplers” from the menu, trying to include as many dishes as we could.
Once our own saganaki had been duly lit (Opa!) and divvied up, Brendan immediately began pointing at everything and asking for a taste. He and Kathy pounced on the tapenade; when they ran out of pita wedges, they mopped up the bowl with hunks of regular bread. Kathy’s pastitsio, a deceptively simple dish, was uncommonly good, and the dolmades were stuffed with plump nuggets of meat and herbs. My avgolémono soup was velvety and thick with orzo, and the spanakopita – served in two skinny wedges – had a perfect balance of spinach and feta.
Brendan tucked into his tapas-like dinner of this-and-that with aplomb, but Duncan was more reticent. After a few tentative tastes, however, he started eating with gusto. In fact, the boys ate so well that we decided to spring for dessert, too. We shared orders of galaktoboúreko (custard pie) and Athena’s own Chocolate Suicide cake. The pie was creamy and delicious, an authentic end to a fabulous meal, but the cake was nothing extraordinary.
On our next trip, we opted to try Athena’s lunch menu, which includes sandwiches and pita-crust pizzas. We figured, rightly, that lunch would mean a smaller crowd and therefore fewer cheese ignitions to mesmerize the boys. To our delight, the televisions in the bar area were showing cartoons, providing a welcome distraction for the boys.
Our server wisely brought the boys’ drinks in Styrofoam cups and ran down the “unlisted” kids’ menu; both boys opted for cheeseburgers. I tried the white pizza, piled with huge chunks of grilled chicken, spinach and “sauced” with herbed cream cheese. Kathy got the Mediterranean shrimp pasta – penne topped with shrimp, capers, sun-dried tomatoes and feta. For her, the best part was the briny, buttery pool of sauce at the bottom of the bowl, which she soaked up with Athena’s fresh bread.
The boys were less enthused with their burgers, though they were thick and topped with melted Kasseri. Duncan ate half of his, but Brendan stuck to fries and more scoops of tapenade. Both boys, however, loved the flash-fried calamari; Duncan, in particular, was popping pieces in his mouth as fast as I could swab them in aioli and set them on his plate.
I wasn’t surprised that our boys preferred the Greek food, and it reinforced my opinion that if you’re going to take your kids to an ethnic restaurant, you should encourage them to go native. They’re probably as bored with chicken fingers as you are, and you’ll be helping them to expand their palates. Brendan’s certainly was; a week after our last trip, he was already asking, “When can we go out for Greek food again?” For taking our boys from “never had it” to “gotta have it,” family-friendly Athena’s gets two big and two little forks high in the air – and a resounding “Opa!”
This article appears in Mar 1-31, 2008.