-Brenda Hillegas
One of the best meals I’ve had in a while was last night at Drury Beer Garden! Opa, which used to occupy the space and was once named one of the best new Greek restaurants in America by Details Magazine, is back for a limited time!
If you have plans around Midtown Village soon, get over to Drury Beer Garden and try as many dishes as you can…
Okay, let’s talk about the drinks first. Drury Beer Garden obviously has beer. And a lot of it! So many bottles and cans- an entire page full. Flip over the menu and you’ll find a pretty good list of drafts too. I was excited to see the Yuengling Hershey Chocolate porter and Southern Tier Pumking (one of my faves), but I had to skip the brews and go right to the Greek-inspired cocktails instead. I mean, they’re only around for a limited time and when in Rome (ah…Santorini), right?
My friend and I started off with the Koukla (pineapple vodka, lemon, lavender) and the Smoked Negroni (gin, sweet vermouth, amaro, rosemary, anise). She had the Koukla which I sampled and enjoyed (the candied pineapple garnish was excellent), but the Smoked Negroni was probably my favorite drink of the night. We both had some Greek wine, a white (Assyrtiko) and a red (Kir Yianni blend) that went well with our food. I ended our meal with the final cocktail on the pop up menu, Antho. This is cucumber vodka with lemon and topped with dill. It’s definitely perfect for the Greek food being offered by Opa right now and super refreshing. I’d order this again too.
The small dish options, “mezze”, included tzatziki of course, eggplant dip, spicy feta, a Greek salad (I love this but didn’t order it last night), meatballs, a butternut squash hand pie, cheese pita pie, and oregano fries. Honestly, choosing was difficult! But my friend and I narrowed it down to three…
The spicy feta dip included whipped long hot peppers and the house made pita bread. Really unique and tasty! We saved some of the dip for our entrees (more on that below). The cheese pita pie is something I’ll never forget and I should have ordered ten of them! Flakey, warm, cheesy…and on top of a dollop of a sweet rose syrup. The meatballs were a perfect portion to share and I really enjoyed the tzatziki sauce.
The menu has three entrees- a pork gyro, chicken souvlaki plate, and bronzino. At this point, I was certain I couldn’t finish another whole dish and I still needed to save room for dessert. So I went with the chicken souvlaki plate because I could easily take home leftovers. This comes with fries which were perfectly cooked. My friend had the gyro and topped it with some of the spicy feta dip we saved from earlier.
Two of my most favorite desserts ever are Greek, so I was thrilled to see them both on the menu! Baklava has been a favorite since I was a kid. I always order it whenever it’s available somewhere. If you have never heard of loukoumades, these are a must try! They’re fried, warm mini donuts topped with a honey drizzle. And add the Nutella! They are so great with Nutella, but I was so damn excited to order them that I completely forgot to ask for it! Still, they were amazing.
The brother and sister duo of George and Vasiliki Tsiouris really put a lot of thought and love into this menu. I wish I could have tried everything. I wish I was there again right now. So please, if you’re making dinner plans in the city anytime soon, go here. And eat a couple extra cheese pies for me!
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