Road Tips

Anthonino's Taverna - St. Louis

 
A shout out today to an old friend, Tim Lake, who used to live in St. Louis years ago and who now lives just outside of Birmingham, AL.  He's a regular reader of Road Tips and we had a back and forth about my post on Amaghetti's (see that post here) a while back.   I was trying to remember the name of the little place where I got a sandwich similar to Amaghetti's "Special" sandwich.  I finally remembered  the place - Mama Toscana's.  Tim was telling me of a place on the Hill that had good sandwiches and an "out of sight" gyro - Anthonino's Taverna.  I told him I didn't know where it was.  He said, "Oh, man!  As much as you're on The Hill, you've had to drive right by it." 

Turns out that I have driven past Anthonino's many times, but never stopped in.  On a recent trip to St. Louis I stopped in for lunch one day. 

Anthonino's Taverna is what you'd call an Italian/Greek restaurant and that's a reflection on the owners, Rosario and Anthony Scarato.  Their father is Italian, while their mother is Greek.  Both Scarato boys grew up in the restaurant business as their father, Bob, owned his own restaurant - Athen's Cafe - for 20 years.  Anthonino's (which is "Little Anthony" in Italian) began in 2004, housed in a building that was built back in the 1930's.  The Scarato's are on hand all the time and their father, sometimes helps out as the host. 

Anthonino's Taverna has a great neighborhood tavern feel to the place.  While it's not overly huge, there's a large bar as you come walking in with a number of tables along the big window up front.  The "L"-shaped dining room allows for small groups to push tables together, or for a quick bite for two on a date night.   The place is bright with a lot of festive paint colors on the walls. 

It was just after noon when I walked into Anthonino's.  One of the waitresses greeted me up front.  I told her it was just me and she said, "Would you like to sit at the bar?"  Well, sure!  That definitely worked for me.  50's and 60's - era  jazz was playing on the sound system in the place.

Anthonino's menu reflects the wide and varied recipes the two brothers bring to the table.  Their appetizer menu is deep with Italian staples like toasted ravioli, calimari and antipasti, but they also feature a number of Greek appetizers such as spanakopita - feta cheese and spinach wrapped in phyllo dough, slices of gyro meat with homemade tzatziki sauce, and baby dalmathes - grape leaves stuffed with seasoned rice along with feta, peppers and pita.  

Their salad menu features a house salad that is similar to those you'll find at many other Hill area restaurants, only they use a Greek dressing to top it off.  They also have a Caesar Salad and your choice of toppings for any of the salads including gyro meat, chicken or sauteed portabella mushrooms.  

Anthonino's has a full dinner menu consisting of both Italian and Greek specialties.  In fact, the readers of River Front Times in St. Louis voted Antonino's the best Greek restaurant in the St. Louis area for 2010.  But they also have a very large selection of Italian pasta specialties such as Tutti Mare, beef tortellini in both a marinara or a cream sauce with peas and capocola, and something called Pasta Puttanesca - pasta topped with tomatoes, capers, onions, kalamata olives, anchovies and oregano with garlic olive oil.  Oh, man!  My stomach is doing back flips as I'm writing this. 

As a surprise to me, Anthonino's also features hand-tossed pizzas on their menu including a number of specialty pizzas with a little Greek flair to them.  A larger group seated at a larger table back toward the restrooms had a couple pizzas on their tables for lunch.  While Anthonino's pizza isn't the thin crust like a St. Louis-style pizza, it's definitely not overly thick.  It looked delicious.

But I was after a gyro.  My friend, Tim, moved from St. Louis to near Cincinnati about five years ago before moving on to Birmingham.  His wife's family still lives in the St. Louis area and he told me, "Anthonino's has the best gyro I've ever had.  I have to stop each time we're back in St. Louis to get one."  He said he became hooked on them just after Anthonino's opened up over six years ago and said he's found nothing like them anywhere.

Anthonino's gyros are part of a lengthy sandwich menu featuring burgers, Italian and Greek sandwiches, fish sandwiches, and their own take on the submarine sandwich.  One thing Tim told me to do was to order the gyro with feta cheese.  And that's exactly what I ordered.  I had my choice of a side and I saw that for a $2.50 up-charge I could get one of Anthonino's house salad.  I took that instead of fries. 

The salad was, in a word, wonderful.  It had fresh tomatoes, kalamata olives, pepperocini and sweet red onions with fresh lettuce topped with a creamy feta cheese dressing.  I would have been happy just to get a large house salad it was so good.

 
Less than 10 minutes after I finished my salad, my gyro was brought out to me wrapped in foil and topped with a generous amount of feta cheese and tzatziki sauce with large slices of tomatoes and red onions mixed in.  It was huge!  I had to make cuts and eat the first part of it with my fork and knife.  But even after that I was having to take big bites just to get into the heart of the gyro. 

I wasn't overly enthused about the feta cheese on my gyro, however.  Too much feta can be overpowering and this was a little too much for me.  And some of the meat slices were a little charred like they had been left on the spit too long.  But the meat that was not overcooked was moist and tender and had a really good flavor to it.  And the pita bread shell they used at Anthonino's was also very good - great flavor and not too chewy. 

Was it the best gyro I've ever had?  Probably not - but, then again, it may be one of the most authentic gyros I've ever had.   Next time I go and get a gyro at Anthonino's I'll probably ask for a little bit of feta - that was almost too much for me. 

But overall, I really liked Anthonino's.  Not only for the gyro, but for the ambiance, the service and the overall neighborhood feel to the place.  From the moment I stepped into the place, I liked the warmness of the place.  It made me wish that I had a neighborhood bar/restaurant like Anthonino's within walking distance of where I live - or even just a short drive from my home.   There's a lot of great little bars and restaurants on the Hill, but Anthonino's Taverna has suddenly shot to the top of my list of the place I'd most like to get a beer and sandwich. 

Uncle Pete's - Moline, IL

One of the first people I met after I moved to the Quad Cities nearly 20 years ago turned me onto a little Greek gyro place in Moline called Uncle Pete's. He told me, "They have the best gyro's in the Quad City." Quite honestly, I haven't found another place that sells gyros that even comes close - even the Greek guys who come in for the annual street fest in downtown Davenport don't come close to Uncle Pete's. Over the years, Uncle Pete's has turned into a favorite dining spot of ours.

Uncle Pete's is named after Pete Panouses (below left), a big bear of a guy who was the original owner since 1988. He and his wife, Kathy, operated a little 32-seat "hole-in-the-wall" location on the Avenue of the Cities in Moline. It could get crowded in Uncle Pete's with people waiting for in-house and to-go orders. But the food was always good. We always used Uncle Pete's as the measuring stick against any other gyros we'd encounter during our travels. And we've found time and time again, Uncle Pete's is hard to beat.

Just after Christmas in 2006, Pete Panouses passed away. His son, Chris (above right), had been working in the family business and had been in managing the place while Pete held court at a little table near the cash register talking to longtime friends and customers when they came in. Other than a large picture of Pete on the wall and his obituary hanging next to it, you couldn't tell if there were any changes going on with the restaurant. Uncle Pete's gyros continued to be the best in town.

Last year, ALDI grocery stores bought the little strip mall that Uncle Pete's was housed in. They were going to tear down the strip mall and put up a grocery store. Chris Panouses had to scramble and find a new place. He wanted to stay within a mile of the original Uncle Pete's location and found some land just up the road a bit (closer for us, actually, from our home in Davenport). It was there he built the new and improved Uncle Pete's restaurant, nearly tripling the seating to 80 in the process. He had hoped to be open by February 1 as they had to vacate the old place by the first of March. But delays in the building of the new restaurant forced him to shut down operations for seven weeks before he was finally able to re-open in the new location in late April.

Not only has the seating increased, but it allowed Panouses to increase the number of items on his menu. He's introduced Italian beef sandwiches, a reuben sandwich and a steak sandwich to the menu. The prices on the gyros have gone up modestly since the move, but they pack them with so much gyro meat it's still a great value.

Cindy and I were over in Moline one Saturday earlier this summer and we had passed the new location of Uncle Pete's (see map). It had been early February since I'd been in - Cindy had been over to the new location a couple of times when I would be on the road. While the old location was sort of recessed and off the street - it was tough to see if you didn't know it was there - the new building stands much closer to the street and the signage is large and easy to see. And Uncle Pete's has a large parking lot that they don't have to share as they had to with two or three other businesses in the old strip mall.

As we walked in, the first thing I noticed was how large the dining room was. There were a number of tables and booths throughout the place - a lot nicer tables and chairs, I might add, than what the Panouses family had at the old location. But that also helped with the ambiance of the old place. The new and improved Uncle Pete's was very nice.

And just like at the old place, you place your orders at Uncle Pete's at the counter - although the counter at the new location is just as you walk in the door from the parking lot. The counter of the old place was in the back of the restaurant and you had to walk through diners just to get your order place. Once again, it was one of those things you just did to get a good gyro from Uncle Pete's.

The menu is located behind the counter, even helping with the correct pronunciation of gyros (YEE-roes). They have two sizes of gyros at Uncle Pete's - the regular and the super. The super comes with an extra container of tzatziki sauce, which, I was told, comes from a family recipe handed down through Kathy Panouses' family. The super gyro is my usual order at Uncle Pete's. While they do have good french fries, a super gyro is usually the only thing I need when I'm there.

Cindy ordered up a regular gyro and an order of Uncle Pete's fries which are more like steak fries than thin French fries. Uncle Pete's slathers on the tzatziki sauce on the regular gyro and you usually don't need to get another container. But if you do want one, it's 50 cents extra.

We found a table and waited for our number to be called. When the girl called out our number, I went up and got our gyros and a ton of napkins as you'll usually need them when you eat an Uncle Pete's gyro. Wrapped in wax paper and served on a paper plate, Uncle Pete's gyros haven't changed since my first visit in 1991. Look at the amount of gyro meat they put on their super gyro. You have to use a fork and knife - plastic, naturally, at Uncle Pete's - to eat some of the gyro meat before you can pick up the pita shell and eat it.

The gyro meat at Uncle Pete's is always cooked just right - not too overdone or undercooked. Too many times at other gyro places they slice off the gyro meat from the spit and let it sit on a tray under a heat lamp, over cooking the strips. Uncle Pete's sort of does the same thing, but as quick as they go through gyros, the meat doesn't stay in the tray all that long. The onions on the gyros at Uncle Pete's are always fresh and strong, and while the tomatoes are of the common salad bar variety that you find in most restaurants, they still put a lot of slices on their gyros.

Since I didn't have any breakfast that day, I made short work of my super gyro. Thank God the taste and quality didn't change with the move to the new location. I helped Cindy with a few of her fries and they were the same as the old location. Many times when a restaurant has moved to a new location, there's something that changes in the quality of the food. Other than a lot more seating and a new building, I can't see much of anything that changed at the new Uncle Pete's.

Chris Panouses was quoted in a couple of the local papers as saying that it was a shock for him to have to leave the old location. They'd gotten into a comfort zone at the old place and leaving the old location was "really emotional." But as good as business has been for him at his new location, I'm sure he's not missing the old place one bit. Uncle Pete's is still closed on Sunday's, but the rest of the time you can find some of the best gyros you'll ever eat anywhere over in Moline. And even though I haven't had one yet, I understand Uncle Pete's has a good burger, too. I'll have to give that a try at some point, but it's certainly tough to go to Uncle Pete's and not order a gyro.

 

CND Gyros and Lounge - Chicago

A casual acquaintance of mine who I run into a couple three times a year in the Quad Cities - WQAD news anchor Jason Fechner - was telling me a while back about this hole-in-the-wall lounge in downtown Chicago that he's known about since his days in college.  The name - CND Gyros and Lounge - was intriguing enough.  What Jason stressed to me was that it was the quintessential dive bar with great gyros and burgers.  "This is the kind of place you'd love," he told me one evening over a couple beers during the Christmas holiday last December.  I made it my mission to give it a shot at some point.

I was in downtown Chicago one evening in late January, staying at the Hilton Garden Inn on East Grand at State.  Jason had told me that CND Gyros was on East Grand just east of Michigan Ave.  (East Grand goes underneath Michigan Ave.)  It was about a five minute walk on a cool night when I went there around 8:30 p.m.  It turned out that the lounge was open until 10 p.m., but I was told by the raspy-voiced lady behind the bar that when food orders are slow, they'll close the kitchen early sometimes.  Ohhh, OK.  I ended up walking back to the hotel and having dinner at the Weber Grill Restaurant, so the evening wasn't a total waste. 

I was back in Chicago in the Spring and happened to stay at the Hilton Garden Inn again.  This time, it was a warm evening as I walked down busy East Grand to CND Gyros and Lounge (see map).  The place is situated just to the east of the corner of N. St. Clair and East Grand, right next to the Volare Restaurant, an Italian restaurant that is favored by the local population.  (I really need to try Volare at some point.) 

  
CND Gyros and Lounge is owned and operated by John Xamplas, a Grecian immigrant who has run the place for years and years.  How the "CND" name came about borders on legend.   The story I got is that when Xamplas bought the business a guy by the name of Chris owned the building next door.  Xamplas couldn't come up with a name for his place, so he decided to call it "Chris Next Door" or shortened to CND.  I don't know if that's the true story, but that's the one I heard. 

The menu for the restaurant is located in the front window of the restaurant/lounge.  Not only is CND Gyros known for their gyros and burgers, they also have a homemade chili that is supposed to be pretty good.  "Behind our gyros, our chili is the second best seller on the menu," the same raspy-voiced bartender told me.  They also have something called a "Gyro Melt" - a Texas Toast sandwich with gyro meat topped with grilled cheese and cheddar cheese.  While the Gyro Melt sounded interesting, I wanted to give their regular gyro a try. 

I walked in and the kitchen was open this time.  Not knowing the drill at the place, I stepped up to the counter at the kitchen under the "Order Here" sign and ordered a gyro.  The guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted a "gyro sandwich or a gyro platter."  The gyro platter basically came with french fries.  No, I'll just get the regular gyro. 

While he made up my gyro, an elderly guy came to take my money.  It turned out this was John Xamplas, the owner.  On the right is a picture of John behind the counter. 

What I really wanted was to have a beer in the lounge area of the restaurant.  I figured that they made the food up front and then you had to order the beer at the bar.  I got my gyro - it was in a plain brown paper bag - and I went to the bar to order an Old Style.  "Bottle or draw, darlin'," the raspy-voiced bartender asked.  I got it in a bottle.  It wasn't cheap - $3.50 a bottle.  Yow!  But, yes, I was in downtown Chicago and it certainly beat the $7.00 bottles of beer I was buying out in Hawaii. 

I found a table in the back of the place and sat down to eat my gyro.  Actually, instead of a gyro on a flat piece of pita, this was more of a pita pocket.  Two chunks of tomatoes were at the top and the tsaksiki sauce was served in a cup on the side.  The pita pocket was stuffed full of the gyro meat and I have to say it was very good.  The meat was a little salty, but the onions were fresh and forward tasting.  It was pretty damn good. 

Equally impressive was the cold beer.  Now, I like cold beer.  And the beer at CND Gyros was ice cold.  It was a great compliment to the very good gyro I finished in rather quickly. 

    
I decided to go back up to the bar and have another beer.  There weren't many people in the place, only a handful of people eating gyros.  I understand that it can get pretty packed during the lunch hour and later in the evening, especially on weekends when they have karaoke on Friday nights.  I ordered up another ice cold beer from the friendly bartender and took a good look around the place.  Even though there were pennants, team pictures and other sports memorabilia on the walls of CND Gyro and Lounge, they had a sitcom on a regular national network on the two televisions behind the bar.  I thought it was rather strange considering the Cubs were playing on television that evening. 

There was a great stained glass ceiling light above the bar area.  Behind the bar was cluttered with lottery tickets, signs and notices, liquor bottles and a line up of beer bottles of the brands they sold.  You could tell from conversations going on between the bartender and some of the people seated at the bar these were regulars who were there. 

Jason was right.  It was the exact kind of joint that I love - a homey, comfortable dive bar that just happened to have very good gyros.  It's far from fancy, but it's not a skid row slum bar, either.  I'm not certain they've changed the decor or many of the fixtures since when they first took over the place.  And that's helps add to the charm of CND Gyros and Lounge.  It's not a tourist destination by any stretch, but I can see why the locals in Chicago keep coming back for the great gyros and cold beer.  I may have to come back in the winter and try a bowl of chili with a cold beer.  Actually, that doesn't sound too bad in the middle of the summer. 

(Update - Jason went into Chicago on August 21 for one last meal at CND Gyros.  As his comment below states, the owner, John Xamplas decided 37 years was long enough.  It's not that he wanted to close, but his lease expired and the building had been sold to a new landlord - a new landlord who obviously saw the old building has being more of a liability than an asset.  Jason told me it was a bittersweet occasion - one that he'd remember for years.  I'm glad that I was able to, at least, have one experience at CND Gyros.)

Oakland Gyros - Milwaukee

A shout out to Bob and Kasey Kelly who gave me a number of suggestions of places to eat in Milwaukee.  Kasey, who is a Milwaukee native, and Bob came up with a suggestion sheet of places to eat when a number of out-of-towners came to the city for their wedding last May.  Even though I consider myself sort of well-versed with places to eat in Milwaukee, Bob and Kasey's list had a number of places that I'd never heard of before.  One of those places was Oakland Gyros at the corner of Locust and Oakland, near the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee (see map).

Oakland Gyros is a favorite late night dining spot for young people who have been out partying earlier in the evening.  Lines form outside after 1 a.m. with people waiting to get in and have a gyro.  The portions that are served are big and the price is very cheap.  The menu features not only gyros, but burgers, beef and chicken shishkabobs, and moussaka - a Greek-style pot pie with lamb and egg plant.   

It wasn't much before noon when I got into Oakland Gyros.  There was a small line at the order counter and it was moving rather quickly.  I ordered up a gyro and a bottle of water.  It wasn't more than a minute later that I had my gyro and water on a platter.  But I didn't have any tzaziki sauce on the platter with the gyros.  I looked over at a counter top and saw a number of squeeze bottles of the stuff.  I was incredulous.  I've never - EVER - been in a Greek restaurant where they didn't charge you for extra tzaziki sauce on top of the little tub of sauce they give you for your gyro.  These guys give you your own 12 oz. squeeze bottle of the stuff!  And I LOVE tzaziki sauce. 

The lunch time crowd was coming in and I was able to find a small booth to sit and have my gyro.  And it was good - the pita bread was light and flavorful, the shaved gyro meat was also tasty.  But the tzaziki sauce was the key to the whole thing.  Before nearly every bite, I would squeeze a little more onto the gyro and chomp into it.

I had eaten about a third of the gyro and I had it sitting in the basket open faced.  I reached for the tzazaki sauce and accidentally knocked over my bottle of water.  Splash!  Right into the basket with the open gyro.  Oh man!  I just sort of folded the gyro up and let the water drip out of it onto the wax paper in the bottom of the basket.  I then took the basket over to the trash can and threw the water-filled paper out.  I then put the now soaked gyro back in the basket.  I considered getting another gyro, but then I thought it would be OK.  The pita bread was now sort of soggy, but the meat, onions and tomatoes were still good.  I just put more tzaziki sauce on it.   

 I can see why Oakland Gyros is one of Kasey Kelly's favorite spots to eat in Milwaukee.  As I said, the portions are huge - one gyro was a full meal in itself; and it was cheap - with a bottle of water, the total cost of the meal was under $6 bucks.  While the place isn't fancy, and the menu is pretty limited to basic Greek food, I thought Oakland Gyros to be a great value with good food.  I'm going to have to go back sometime in the future to get a gyro that I don't soak with water. 

The Greek Islands - Lombard, IL

On a recent visit to Chicago, I was in the mood for a good gyro.  Since I was staying out in the western suburbs, I wanted to find some place in the area for good Greek food.  One place I found was a place called the Greek Islands in suburban Lombard just north of Yorktown Center shopping mall.  (see map). 

Over 20 years ago, during my first trip ever to the Consumer Electronics Show when they held it in Chicago in the summertime, I was taken to the original Greek Islands restaurant in Greek Town near downtown Chicago.  This was my first meal with my new boss, Mike Cannady, and my new colleague, Kevin Leja.  I don't remember much about the evening because of all the Ouzo we were drinking.  But it was my first exposure to Greek food and I remember having a good time.  Too good of a time.  I also remember crawling up the stairs to our hotel rooms later that evening.   The best thing is that all three of us are still good friends to this day and we still have a good laugh when we reminisce about that evening.  

The Greek Islands in downtown Chicago (see map) is sort of an institution in the area.  It first opened in 1971 when Gus Couchell, Filandros Sguros, Apostolos Bournas and Michael Scafidi pooled their resources into the Greek Islands restaurant.  Today, Gus Couchell continues to be the managing partner.  The Greek Islands is famous bringing in many of their ingredients directly from Greece with Gus Couchell personally selecting some of the items to be shipped back to the U.S.  

The Greek Islands opened their Lombard location in 1984.  It is significantly more upscale in appearance than the original Greek Islands restaurant downtown.  The original Greek Islands looks a little more funky, sort of like an old fish shack or something along that line.  The Greek Islands in Lombard is very nice with a more ornate appearance.  

The place was nearly full when I went in about 7:30 one evening to get something to eat.  The very Greek host, sat me at a table in the loud dining room and handed me a menu.  A young man brought a basket of fresh bread and very fresh olive oil. 

While they had a lot to offer, quite honestly, about the only Greek food I really know is gyros.  Some of the seafood dishes looked tempting.  I almost ordered one of the chicken dishes on the menu.  But really, about the only thing I've ever had that was Greek has been gyros.  I don't even remember what I got for dinner for my first meal at the original Greek Islands.  I'm tellin' ya - Ouzo is powerful shit!  I think I saw Jesus that night.  

I looked through the menu and really the only thing that I really wanted was gyro meat - a combination of lamb and beef on a spit with the meat shaved off into thin slices.  And the cucumber sauce!  Gotta have the cucumber sauce.

By this time, I realized that I was not being noticed by any of the busy waiters in the restaurant.  It was like I didn't exist.  Five minutes goes by - no one stops to acknowledge me.  I sat and read my Chicago Tribune, waiting patiently for a waiter to even bring me a glass of water.  The bread was making me thirsty.  About 5 more minutes went by.  Nothing.  I decided not to try and stop someone just to see how long it would be.  I know quite well the hazards of dining alone in a busy restaurant.  I have gotten up and left before if no one waits on me.  It hasn't happened for quite sometime.  

This night it almost happened.  

Finally, a waiter came up and asked if I'd been helped.  I said, "I've been here almost 15 minutes and the only person I've talked to is the host who sat me.  I know you guys are busy, but this is ridiculous."

He half-heartedly apologized for my inconvenience and asked what he could bring me.  I told him I'd take the gyros platter and a Bud Light.  He clicked his pen, thanked me and off he went.  

I waited another five minutes before my lukewarm Bud Light showed up at the table.  I took a drink and the next thing I know, here's my gyros platter being laid in front of me.  It was a generous portion of gyro meat with sliced tomatoes and onions with a couple pieces of pita bread.  Oh, and of course, the sauce.   I really didn't need the pita bread, given that I ate some of the very good fresh baked bread earlier.  So I just started eating the meat as is.

Only the meat was over-cooked.  Way over-cooked.  As in almost inedible over-cooked.  It was dry and lifeless.  It was like someone had cut it off the spit, popped it in the oven at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, then pulled it out to serve it.  I sort of wondered if they just had the strips of gyro meat lying around in a pan under a hot light in the kitchen because it would have taken some time to slice off all that meat - a lot longer than what it took for the waiter to take my order, then come back with the food in well less than 10 minutes.   The only saving grace was that the tomatoes, onions and the sauce were fresh and added some flavor to the meat. 

Given that the service was bad, and now the gyro meat was severely over-done, I just chalked it up to one of those things you face on the road.  It was definitely not a good value, that's for sure.  They charged me $11.25 for the gyros plate.  We have a place in the Quad Cities called Uncle Pete's over in Moline that charges $6.25 for a gyro that has more meat than what I got on my plate at the Greek Islands, and it tastes infinitely better than what I had this particular evening.  (I need to do an entry on Uncle Pete's.  Their gyros really are tough to beat.)

Some places only get one shot with me.  Some of it is because I may not be traveling through there again, or I'm looking to try other places in the area.  But some are because of poor service, poor food and a poor experience.  I had all three at the Greek Islands in Lombard.  Although the place was packed with people, and they've been in business for 25 years at this location, my one and only time at this Greek Islands will regrettably be my last.  I'm sure they'll survive without me.