Neighborhood: Greektown

I'm tragically behind in updating, and my parents are due to roll in any minute for a holiday visit. So I'm going to pound this out pretty quickly.

Last Sunday was Greek Fest in the city's Greektown neighborhood. I was pretty excited about this because: A) I like Greek Food, and B) I'm always ready to explore beyond the city's north side.

Greektown is in area called the West Loop or West Loop Gate, just a few block's walk from the El Loop downtown and fairly close to Union Station. The city skyline, and especially the Sears Tower, are right at the doorstep of the neighborhood. With disparate ideas of "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" , "Mamma Mia", and that place where Jerry, Elaine, and George would get their coffee on, I was expecting neat bungalows and greasy spoon restaurants, the streets filled with dancers (ABBA excluding) and folks yelling out "oompa!" every so often.

Unsurpsingly, the reality is quite different. As the shopgirl at one of the bakeries said, "We don't live here, we just eat here". There's no real neighborhood to speak of, as Greektown consists largely of about a three block stretch of Halsted Street. It's an interesting area, and wandering off of Halsted will put you in the middle of cool condo conversions, spas, and a restaurant called, intriguingly, "Butter". But there are no Orthodox churches nearby, no traditional single-family residences to speak of, and certainly no garage doors painted with Greek flags.

What it might lack in breadth, it makes up for in intensity. That short stretch of Halsted packs some serious Hellenic culinary heft, with restaurant after restaurant after bakery backed up one against the other. The fest consisted largely of each restuarant pitching a tent in front of its respective storefront and doing some serious foodie showmanship. I opted for two favorites: the flaming cheese appitizer known as saganaki and the grape leaves stuffed with beef, lamb, and rice with lemon sauce, also known as dolmades. Great stuff.

Me being me, however, the highlight was the trip to the bakery, which had cleverly prepackaged a sampler with rosewater cakes, pistachio mini-pies, a variety of other goodies and, of course, baklava. Redd, my cohort for the afternoon, showed considerably more restraint and opted for a single piece of chocolate-dipped bakalava.

I'm determined to get back for the unseasonable weather hits, as a couple of the restaurants had fantastic patios and specialities listed on the menu that were tempting enough to encourage movement away from my old stand-bys.