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In This Issue

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A Full Life Threatened A Nashville philanthropist chronicles her struggle against cancer

Security Breaches A Nashville rent-a-cop company causes more trouble than it prevents

Mr. Big Shot Vandy basketball star Shan Foster is having the kind of year even Disney couldn’t script

Adam and Me Channel 2 axes its political blogger

Confederacy of Dunces

Colonoscopy for Hire Like a lawn or laundry service—only with laxatives

Mission of Mercy How two Vanderbilt med students, a Kenyan clinic and a Nashville filmmaker are healing the world, one patient at a time

 

 

By This Author

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Arches of Triumph Nolensville Road gets a new dining landmark

Made in America Two new restaurants keep it simple—and homemade—with Italian- and Southern-flavored fare

Nobody’s Fus Under new ownership, it’s not the same old Parco, for better and for worse

A Very, Very, Very Fine House It’s all in the family at Tandy Wilson and Anne Kostroski’s restaurant—and on Sundays, it’s family style

Playing Krayps Downtown eatery gambles on a simple French classic

Days of Lime and Moles Chris Hyndman & Co. put their sleek spin on Latin-inspired cuisine

Giving ’em the Finger Food Seble Sebsebie shoots into Midtown with a fresh, bountiful—and cheap—buffet

 

 

The Author

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Carrington Fox

Carrington Fox is the food critic for the Nashville Scene.

 

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Like a raven-haired Goldilocks traipsing from porridge to porridge and chair to chair, chef Yanni Panagiotakis is sampling yet another restaurant location, in search of a place that will be just right. These days, the itinerant and charismatic chef is cultivating Yanni’s Grecian Gardens, in the Berry Hill cottage that recently housed La Luna Turkish restaurant and subsequently morphed into an Italian-Mediterranean restaurant of the same name.

Panagiotakis took over the brown clapboard cottage in January, purging the kitchen of hummus, falafel and other grainy Mediterranean staples in favor of a more specifically Greek repertoire and a sprawling American breakfast menu.

The pairing of all-American favorites such as Texas French toast and New York strip with Hellenic home cooking such as dolmadakia and mousaka is an unlikely formula, and one with which Panagiotakis has some experience. In 2004 he co-founded Athens Family Restaurant on Franklin Pike with then-wife Dina, who still runs the restaurant and has developed it into a 24-hour dining landmark. Since leaving Athens, Yanni has worked in Greece (yes, that Greece) and been involved in several Greek-flavored startups locally, including The Breeze of the Greek Isles on Demonbreun and the short-lived Olympic Flame at the corner of Nolensville Road and Harding Place.

While Yanni’s name may be familiar in local dining circles, the vocabulary on his menu is refreshingly foreign, with names such as melitzanosalata, psari gemisto, imam baildi and galaktobouriko dotting the blue-and-white pages. But from beneath the exotic titles shines a straightforward palette of clean flavors—olive oil, lemon, salt and herbs—as uncomplicated and vibrant as the restaurant’s decor. In the cozy indoor patio, a cheery room with white and blue tablecloths that recall the white rooftops and cloudless skies of a postcard from Mykonos, one simple detail stands out: unusually large teardrop glasses of iced tea that make both a gracious overture and a good excuse for lingering after a meal.

We started out with an assortment of appetizers accompanied by a basket of sliced pita, grilled with margarine, which lent a faint crispness to the surface. If you enjoy the Greek staple of grape leaves wrapped around rice, the tiny dolmadakia are perfect two-bite portions. Having never cottoned to the anise-tinged taste of grape leaves, I preferred the delightful melitzanosalata, a mousse of eggplant with a hint of mayonnaise and olive oil, which worked beautifully with the warm pita. Tzatziki made with homemade yogurt and cucumbers is available as a starter with pita, but it also comes as a side on several orders, including the souvlaki platters, so you could find yourself with something of a tzatziki lake on the table. Better to diversify with an order of melitzanosalata or imam baildi. The tender baked eggplant, topped with pine nuts, olive oil, feta cheese and a light sauce of tomatoes and onions is listed on the dinner menu, but was also available at lunch when we requested it.

As far as the familiar souvlaki goes, Yanni’s chicken stacks up well, with a generous plate of tender meat grilled with herbs and served with a small salad, pita and tzatziki. (If you have kids in tow, the chicken kabob and souvlaki are far superior to the lackluster over-fried chicken tenders.)

In our visits, we were often encouraged to order the pastichio, and twice we complied. But both times, our server’s enthusiasm for the casserole of ground beef and noodles topped with bechamel sauce confounded us, as the meal was dry and slightly reminiscent of Hamburger Helper. More interesting was the mousaka. Also topped with a nutmeg-specked bechamel with the texture of a warm flan, the medley of ground beef, zucchini and eggplant was moister than the pastichio and reminded us favorably of a shepherd’s pie.

Lamb figures prominently across the menu, with items such as arni exohikon—lamb stewed with artichokes, tomatoes and feta and wrapped in flaky phyllo crust. On one visit, a lunch special of this dish was available under the simple name “lamb phyllo.” Our favorite order across our visits was the special of grilled lamb. While the lollipops of lamb were cooked more thoroughly than you might find when a whole rack is carved into individual pieces after roasting, the simple flavors allowed the taste of lamb to shine, accented by a delicate grilled crispness on the edges. With a restrained portion of five dainty chops, the lamb special made for a moderate lunch in both size and price.

The Greek grilled fish, a fillet of tilapia seasoned simply with lemon and oregano, makes a healthy meal, though on our visit, the fish was slightly soggy.

Sides of rice and green beans in tomato sauce accompanied our entrées and, in almost every case, went back to the kitchen virtually untouched. While the vegetable-rice combo was preferable to a heavier pair of sides, we more likely would have eaten the beans had they been cooked in a way that preserved their crispness and bright-green color.

Rich in spinach, feta cheese and eggplant, Greek food lends itself well to vegetarian dining, and Yanni’s has several items to meet the meatless needs, including fried cheese (saganaki), cheese-stuffed phyllo pastry (tyropita), a vegetable plate (hortofayia) and a veggie pita. We enjoyed the spanakopita, spinach pie in an exceptionally flaky phyllo pastry, available as a starter or an entrée.

Even more than the savory spanakopita, we enjoyed the sweet treatments of the flaky phyllo, including the galaktobouriko, pastry filled with warm custard and dusted with cinnamon, drizzled with citrus-infused honey-syrup and topped with walnuts. Yanni’s version of baklava, made with walnuts instead of pistachios, is a more syrupy rendition than we are used to. The serving of two triangles of pastry and nuts makes an ample dessert for two people.

In the early days of the transition from La Luna to Yanni’s Grecian Gardens, Panagiotakis is keeping a low profile, holding off advertising until he feels he has stabilized a restaurant that has experienced swings in quality and reputation over the last few years. The slow start is probably a good idea, since we have already seen dramatic improvement in service since the January launch. Much of that improvement must be due to Brandt Cooley, who stopped in for lunch one day and never left. A newcomer to Greek food, Cooley was immediately drawn to Yanni’s cuisine and decided to stay and help get the service up to the same level. Cooley’s enthusiasm for the food is infectious, as he describes knowledgeably—and with impressive pronunciation—the intriguing menu. Take his recommendation of the pastichio with a grain of salt, which, come to think of it, could really help the bland dish. But if he leads you to the bouyatsa, a warm dessert of phyllo stuffed with orange-infused custard and topped with powdered sugar and cinnamon, you’ll be grateful. Like so much of Yanni’s menu, the bouyatsa is just right.

Yanni’s Grecian Gardens is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday.