The Local Awesome

Let’s all close our eyes and do some imagining.

It’s been a long week. It’s been awhile since you’ve treated the Fam to a nice dinner out. It’s…well, it’s frankly a night that you absolutely do not want to cook.

You could go to the usual family dining institutions…I mean theydo have pictures of Marilynn Monroe and Jeff Gordon on the walls…

…Or maybe you could try out a place that doesn’t rely on pieces of flair to make you feel like family…maybe you could go to The Parthenon Greek Grill and Taverna.

And by “maybe,” I mean “definitely.”

Let’s talk about what makes the Parthenon awesome. Again, I will break it down in numbers as my brain tends to take detours on the road of organization…

1. The Atmosphere!
2. The People!
3. The FOOD!
4. The Events!

The atmosphere at the Parthenon is perfect for a night out, no matter what kind of group you’ve got. Let me tell you, as a mom who sometimes feels like a giant tube of diaper cream, it’s so nice to be able to go out and feel fancy. What’s even nicer is to be able to feel fancy and know that no one is going to give you the stink-eye for asking for a high-chair.

The dining room is large and inviting, and the smells just about make your jaw hit the floor. If you’re into the booze, you’ll be pleased to see a couple of walls lined with fine wine and liquor. If you’re not into the booze, you’ll probably just have to settle with lemonade and mind-blowing food. I hope you’ll be able to handle it.

The atmosphere is complemented by a refreshingly friendly staff. I dare you, just ask your server what his or her favorite dish is. When you can practically see drool coming out of a server’s mouth as they describe the food, it’s usually a good sign.

Who’s behind this food, you ask? Well, I should probably introduce you to George and Mike Kazas, the brothers and brains behind the operation.

If you’re wondering, George is on the left and Mike is on the right. Hopefully they’ll forgive me for picking an eye contact-lacking picture…Charlie was just too cute in this one…

I had a couple questions for the guys, and they went a little bit like this:

Me : “What is it that makes your food so good?”
George : “We grew up with it. It has to do with the recipes and the quality of food. It’s not coming out of a bag or a can.
Mike : “George makes it. George comes up with the recipes and makes them what they are.”

George, of course, waved this off with a modest “Oh, stop it,” look on his face.

Something that I find to be particularly awesome about this restaurant is their support of local business.

Me : “What makes Lincoln the perfect place for your restaurant?”
George : “Lincoln is a small town. I’d say 70% of our business is regular customers. For the most part it’s getting a whole lot better as far as buying local. Throughout the summer pretty close to 90% of our produce is all local. Between the farmer’s market and local farmers, we’ve got almost everything we need. Everything Dartam Farms produced last year was specifically for us. I don’t think you can get that in your bigger cities. Yeah, it’s up and coming, but it would be much more difficult to do that in a larger community.”

Now, Mike and George aren’t the only awesome people in this joint; part of what makes this dining experience so memorable is the staff. Water is refilled quickly (that’s one of my husband’s tipping guidelines), and they are adept in the art of “attentive but not obnoxious.”

When talking about the staff, George explains, “We’ve got a whole ton of great people we’ve been working with that have been here forever, which makes what we do great.” And he’s not kidding.

Speaking of great…let’s talk about food.

Oh, my goodness gracious and gravy, the food. The Parthenon’s menu is just like the atmosphere: totally awesome and totally versatile. You want to try something new and exotic? Try the broiled baby octopus.

No, I’m serious. Gravy serious.

I am pretty terrified of eating fish. I like crab legs and sometimes shrimp. A few visits ago, however, George came to the table (by the way, George makes a habit of coming out to the front, greeting customers and checking on food quality) and insisted we try the octopus. (I should probably add that we eat here fairly frequently, so it’s not like George runs around forcing dishes on people or anything.)

We tried it, and it was ROCKIN’. The octopus had a perfect grilled flavor, rather than a well…octopus-like flavor, and was resting on a bed of caramelized red onions, and…jeeze… I’m telling you, just try it.

Now, if you don’t want to try something crazy, there’s plenty of menu for you, too. Things like gyros, chicken gyros, pasta, salads, vegan entrees, and steaks all get the same amount of love and are completely delicious.

The most important piece of advice I can give you in regards to the Parthenon’s food is this:Always check the specials.
George is coming up with original dishes every day and Mike is back there making them delicious. There are new, special entrees, appetizers and desserts on the right side of the menu, so make sure you check them out!

The second most important piece of information I can give you is this: Try the baklava ice cream. This stuff is homemade, vanilla ice cream filled to the brim with crunched up bits ofbaklava. It will make you close your eyes and imagine going on vacation to a place where all of the pools are filled with baklava ice cream…a place where sunscreen is made of baklava ice cream…a place where your shampoo is made of…well, I’m sure you can see where I’m going with this. Dessert is a must.

In case you were wondering, those are pistachio and macadamia nut tarts, and, yes, it’s appropriate for you to be salivating.

Finally, (as this is getting to be suuuuuper long) I have to talk about the events that happen here. Mike and George put on everything from Wine and Beer Dinners to house-shaking holiday parties. Wine and Beer Dinners usually consist of multiple-course meals with a featured adult beverage for each course. At a holiday party, (St. Patrick’s day is their 3rd busiest day of the year!) you can experience anything from a Mariachi band to belly dancers, to a jazzy dude singin’ the night away. They’ve got a big Fat Tuesday celebration planned, so keep your eyes open and “like” them on Facebook to stay updated!

There are about a gazillion reasons why you should come eat at the Parthenon. I’ve written about three pages, so I’ve obviously covered a lot of them… You can find them at your local festivals, state/county fairs, and farmer’s markets serving up mouthwatering Greek food…or you can come for Brunch on Sundays, or enjoy your dinner out on the patio when the weather gets nicer, or…

I should probably stop. Why? Because you shouldn’t be reading anymore; you should be yelling “Opa!” and movin’ those booties over to the Parthenon Greek Grill. See you there.

I’m sure some of you have been wondering what the “Local Awesome” category is all about, as it is officially the only empty category left on my blog. I figured a little explanation is in order while I get everything organized.

No matter where you live, there is always at least one local business owner doing their best to bring great product to the community, whether it’s a restaurant or even a tiny little gas station. These are people who deserve recognition and a little free publicity! So this is my plan; every other week or so (currently, my social life is very dependent on the weather) I will be interviewing local businesses and organizations that I think are…well, awesome…and taking some pictures and revealing them to my readers.

How many times have we sat on the couch and pouted, thinking, “There’s NOTHING to do in this town!”? Or, “Oh, I wish I lived in California, where they’ve got great fresh food and great wine and blah blah blah.”?

Well, the truth is, we’ve got some pretty superb businesses here in Nebraska, and they’re worried about serving you, not whether their state’s going to fall into the ocean or not.

If you have suggestions for awesome local businesses, shoot me an email! This is not a requirement but definitely a helpful criteria: if I can go in with $5 and come out happy, that’s definitely going to sway me. I will be able to hear Dave Ramsey yelling at me if I spend any more than that.

The first Local Awesome post is very close to going up, so follow along and hopefully you’ll discover a new favorite place to haunt!

P.S. Notice the picture of the GORGEOUS cheesecake? Yeah, that’s a teaser. Are you ready?

When this whole “Local Awesome” idea popped into my head, the first place I thought of was the Two Twins Cafe.

What makes this place awesome? Well, there are a bunch of things that I could go into to describe the awesomeness of the Two Twins Cafe. I’m going to focus on four:

1. The food. My goodness, the food.
2. The dessert. I’m telling you, tears pop out of my eyes as I think about it. Big, fat, cheesecakey tears.
3. The staff.
4. The Twins.

For this particular instance, I’m going to focus on number four first, because, well, I just have to. Prepare to meet a couple of spectacular ladies.

Kim and Denise were kind enough to let me sit and visit with them (after they were closed, no less!) in order to get some quotes for the blog. I can’t tell you how refreshing it was to talk to these ladies. Not only are they fun, but they are down-to-earth, eloquent, andSMART. Since I’ve got kind of a one-track mind, I first asked them to tell me just what it is they love about their food. I have to mention that watching them complete each other’s sentences was a blast, and so, rather than specifying who says what, let’s just call it a combined effort.

Me: What do you love about your food?
The Twins: We take simple food and make it amazing. What we serve is fresh and available. The world doesn’t have to provide us with what we need; it comes from our locals. It’s the goodness of food that we can make amazing; that’s what we love about our cafe.

Taking the goodness of food and stepping it up to something amazing is exactly what they do. You like pancakes? Well howsabout some Banana Nut pancakes instead? You like soup? Hmmm…maybe you should try a steaming bowl of homemade Sweet Potato Bisque made completely from scratch.

This seems like the perfect time to talk about number 1. The food.

You see that marker board? That means they have daily specials. That’s right. And not just, “Hmm…Let’s make the chicken patty be the special today,” specials. I’m talking brand-new, original, made-from scratch specials you can’t find anywhere else. They’ve always got two homemade soups (These are my personal favorites. If I’m running short on cash, I have a bowl of soup and a roll and am totally satisfied.)

And now on to question number 2:

Me: What makes Lincoln, NE the place for the cafe?
The Twins: Lincoln expects great-tasting, home-style/comfort food. It’s a great, conservative town with great, conservative customers, but in its own way it’s also a very contemporary town. It’s got a relatively Bohemian mix of tastes, expectations, and affordabilities.

The cafe caters perfectly to that mix of tastes and personalities by providing delicious comfort food with a twist. If it weren’t for the amazing staff, however, (Number 3…Yeah, I know I’m jumping around…) nobody would get to taste any of it! One thing you’ll definitely notice about the cafe is how closely-knit and dedicated the staff is. Whenever I go in, I always see the same people working. As a girl from a very small town, that is something I can certainly appreciate. Being recognized and treated like an old friend when you walk into a restaurant gets a big ol’ thumbs up from this lady.

Okay. Are you guys ready for this? I’m about to talk about dessert. If you aren’t sitting down already, you probably should. I’m sure I’m going to have to eat some lame-o chocolate chips out of my cupboard after this simply because my mouth will be screaming for sweets.

Gourmet, full-fat (Sorry, dieters. This is the real deal.), decadent, and homemade. They’ve got everything from Bavarian Mint pie to Heath Bar cheesecake. And this stuff is made in house. No Cheesecake Factory imports here. Bread pudding, Red Velvet cake, cheesecake, cheesecake, and cheesecake!

Whew. I said ‘cheesecake’ a whole lot there…I need to take a break…to tell you about a little something called Boston Cream Pie. Homemade Red Velvet cake, held together by the most heavenly custard mortar you’ve ever had in your life, covered in chocolate ganache and topped with homemade whipped cream.

Tears of joy, I tell you. Tears of pure joy.

Okay, okay. Let’s focus here. When I asked the twins if they had any exciting future plans, they informed me that their big plans had actually just been realized. Until recently, the cafe was known only for its breakfast and lunch fare. Now, on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, you can visit the cafe in the evenings and indulge in a fabulous dinner. I had (remember, simple with a twist?) Chicken Fried Chicken with chorizo gravy and sauteed spinach. Some of my friends know about my relationship with gravy.

It is very serious.

If Pee Wee Herman told me to marry this gravy (and I weren’t already married to a wonderful man) I’d do it. No questions asked.

Okay. Dinner’s about ready at the Bonk household, and I need to wrap this up. One last thought from the twins:
It’s all about facets on the gem, and the gem is the cafe. When you look through one facet, you see breakfast and lunch, amazing dinner, great service, beauty, and us.

So that’s it. Don’t think, just go to the Two Twins Cafe. After you wake up from a deliciousness induced coma, you’ll thank me.