It's Not Just A Meal, It's An Adventure

Last Wednesday I had an amazing dinner. A dinner not enough people in Cleveland know about which is so unfortunate. Yes, this entry is six days after the fact, but this just illustrates how pleased I was for it to keep my attention this long.

I went to OPA! last Wednesday for the Greek Fest and I was very impressed with the final result. My dinner companion and I stopped at Dave’s to pick up a bottle of wine and then carried our bottle across the street to OPA! where they gladly let us bring in our own wine for a $5 fee. Considering what a nice bottle of wine can cost you at dinner, this is an incredible deal. We couldn’t decide between the Cabernet Sauvignon or the Zinfandel—luckily for us Coppola makes a nice mixture of the two.

Our next pleasant surprise came when we entered the restaurant and found we practically had the small intimate environment all to ourselves, which means we also had the waiter all to ourselves to explain everything we were about to eat. And did we ever eat. The fest starts you off with an appetizer platter consisting of spanakpita, stuffed calamari, feta, olives, pickled vegetables and stuffed grape leaves. It was a very exciting and interactive dish to share as we tasted and discussed everything in front of us. Once we were done with that, we both were presented with large greek tomato salads which also included capers, onion, green peppers, feta and a greek vinaigrette dressing. Following the salad, you are introduced to your entrees: pastitsio, lamb kabobs, stuffed chicken and the braised vegetable of the day. It was all so very good but the chicken won my prize of the night. It was an “airline” chicken, which our waiter had to explain to us, stuffed with pastourma (a Greek version of prosciutto) and kasseri (Greek cheese). To top off this dinner, the desserts included baklava w/ouzo ice cream and coffee. Because of the food coma I was about to fall into, we actually got to take our dessert to go.

For a fun dinner for two, you can not beat the quality and the quantity of food you get at OPA! on Wednesday nights at the Greek Fest. Your palate, stomach and wallet will all thank you for the experience. (To add even more class to this experience I highly recommend following this lovely dinner with body shots at The Grid for ladies night, but that's just me.)