Athenian Room-- The Marriage of Salad & Fries, Opa!

A very long time ago, back when I finished undergrad, I was given a trip to France for a few weeks.

We spent half of our time in Paris and the rest in the south of France. Each day, if we were out, I ate the same thing, salad, fries, & a lemonade. I just didn't really dig the offerings of traditional french food back then. It was too hot,yes this is back when I felt heat instead of cold, and salad with fries was all I seemed to crave.

Fast forward almost a generation later and I can't stop going to Athenian Room for the Vegetarian Salad. That salad is a bed of lettuce, a few rounds of cucumber, a few olives, slices of decent raw winter tomatoes and it's topped with their greek fries.

This fantastic dish is one of my favorites at Cross Rhodes in Evanston and when I mentioned Cross Rhodes in front of stevez, he let me know I could get my fix less than a mile from my house at Athenian Room. He was right. I've already been twice since Saturday and I'm contemplating that meal again tonight.

What makes the fries Greek? They are steak-style fries that are bathed in a vinaigrette of oregano and what tastes like red wine vinegar and olive oil. I love this dish.

**Mods- I didn't see a dedicated thread to Athenian Room ( although those Greek Fries are mentioned in a few places on the board), so if there is one please merge this.

Athenian Room
807 West Webster Avenue
Chicago, Il

Phone: (773) 348-5155

Another big hole in lth coverage plugged! Clearly deserves a thread of it's own. For those with a carniverous bent the grilled chicken and burger aren't bad either.

pairs4life wrote:**Mods- I didn't see a dedicated thread to Athenian Room ( although those Greek Fries are mentioned in a few places on the board), so if there is one please merge this.

kuhdo wrote:Another big hole in lth coverage plugged! Clearly deserves a thread of it's own. For those with a carniverous bent the grilled chicken and burger aren't bad either.

Athenian Room was unsuccessfully nominated for a GNR in 2008. At the time, there was no dedicated thread but a couple of volunteers compiled links to mentions of it across LTH, and they are numerous:

From The GP:
First
Second
Third
Fourth
Fifth
Fifth

From Mhays:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=119271#p119271
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=159098#p159098
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=113209#p113209
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=113209#p113209
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=180262#p180262
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=210885#p210885

I'm really glad to see that it's finally garnered its own thread.

=R=

Their taramasalata isn't half bad either--I used to love this place but haven't been in a while. It was a go-to hangover cure back in the day...

Vegetarian Salad

The fries are the best batch of pre-frozen spuds I've ever come across, all thanks to the sauce. The gyro salad is also a treat and their skirt steak (imho) the best anywhere. Tina Fey, and 100's of others, live for their chicken. Nice longtime neighborhood spot.

Da Beef wrote:
The fries are the best batch of pre-frozen spuds I've ever come across, all thanks to the sauce. The gyro salad is also a treat and their skirt steak (imho) the best anywhere. Tina Fey, and 100's of others, live for their chicken. Nice longtime neighborhood spot.

No kidding longtime spot, I used to go there a lot back in the early eighties before the neighborhood got too expensive for the likes of us.

I have always liked the fries at the athenian room. The food is pretty good too when you need a greek fix and you are on the north side.

We're semiregulars at Athenian Room, especially in the summer months when you can eat outside, but for some reason knowing that Tina Fey likes it makes me want to go to there even more.

We've been carrying out the skirt steak and Greek fries for close to forever. They always seem to hit medium rare just right. The gyros is tasty but I prefer a slightly thicker slice. I've always liked the taste of the chicken but find the breast meat a little too dry.

Better late than never. I feel like I've been flogging the Athenian Room here for years. One of my favorite burgers in town (with feta), the vinegary marinated skirt steak, the consistently wonderful crispy chicken, and of course the great salad w/ lemon-oregano infused fries. My undergrad mentors at NU in the 70s used to refer to it as "the club," as in, "let's have lunch at the club." I think, in many ways, it's the embodiment of GNR virtues. The gyros my have rivals elsewhere, but this is where I was introduced to gyros, and I still love them here. We're talking about 30+ yrs. of consistent goodness, and I still see the same faces behind the counter and seating customers.
(Cross Rhodes in Evanston does basically the very same thing just about as well. Sadly, I believe that Cross Rhodes was either the cause or the result of a family conflict, otherwise they would be directly related operations. But the proprietor there started at AR and, again, I believe but am not absolutely certain, married the daughter of the house, then branched out.)

Just got back from a quick ride on our bikes and lunch over there. I hadn't been since, gulp... Thursday.

Same as it ever was. Had a bite with mbh and boudreaulicious last fall. It was a bustling night. There was some movie crew trying to commandeer the parking on Halsted and Webster, but inside, it was golden.

Such a great and simple neighborhood joint.

I so love Athenian Room. Seems like it should have some initials after its name, hint hint hint!

One of the places that has red wine sauce alongside tzatziki just like I had in Greece. Very very tasty.

I used to live around the corner from the Athenian Room and was somewhat of a regular there . . . sad that I haven't been there in quite a while. Always quite the perfect intersection of solid food and great value. I realize the neighborhood would cause many to drop expectations, but it's really a terrific place. And I agree on the fries -- they give frozen fries a great name. And while I liked my one visit to Gyros on the Spit, I just don't think it measures up to Athenian Room.

I miss this place! It's been out of our rotation for awhile and clearly needs to come back. Some nights, we'd order the Athenian chicken, pick it up and drive home (mostly to avoid the lines of happy eaters).
Edited for grammar--and also to say again, those fries.

Athenian Room is blocks from where I live. Along with the Pita Inn, I probably eat out here more than anywhere. It is delicious, consistent, inexpensive, and simple. It would probably be in my top ten for one of the cheapest but best tasting sit down restaurants in the city.

Athenian Room's menu consists of a handful of basic things. It's actually smaller than it looks. For starters you can have soup, salad, taramasalata, feta, olives, or shrimp. The sandwiches consist of gyros, chicken, pork, and a cheese pita. They serve entrees consisting of skirt steak, half roast chicken, and shrimp. Lastly they serve full dinners of the above options with fries. Coffee and Baklava for dessert.

Unlike most Greek restaurants, they don't serve rice here; nor oven-baked potatoes - just fries and Greek fries. It is basically extremely well made Greek fast food on a plate. Which I am totally fine with.

FYI, alcohol is available by walking past the kitchen/grill and heading into Glascott's. The restaurant staff will not serve it to you; you have to go get it yourself. It's nice to enjoy a cheap wine or a beer with dinner even though it's not on the menu.

It is a bit of a time warp; the restaurant has probably been the same forever and certainly as long as I've gone there. On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday the place is filled with families and college students during the school year. On weeknights it is pretty light. The service is nothing special, but for these prices it doesn't need to be.

Athenian Room is kind of a dying breed sort of neighborhood restaurant. It sort of exemplifies the great family run local joint that is sort of convivial and just serves great food and nothing more. I'm hoping they don't go anywhere anytime soon. Year after year consistency is hard to find in restaurants.

It's been operating since 1972 and on this particular Sunday afternoon the dining room was full from the moment we arrived until we left. It may not look like today's Lincoln Park, but the neighborhood still loves going there.



The taramasalata was a disappointment. It certainly wasn't bad, but you could barely detect any fish roe flavor. I feel like 90% (or more) of the taramasalatas in Chicago are made from Krinos brand fish roe, and the results are uniformly uninspiring.



The kalamata chicken is a simple roasted chicken, with perfectly crispy skin, doused in a lemon-olive oil sauce and sprinkled with dried oregano. As others have mentioned, the fries are food service, but something about them works in this context. They soak up the chicken juices and lemon sauce just so. I enjoyed the chicken though it was dry in parts, but the best bites were terrific. I can see why it has a cult following.



The undisputed highlight of the visit was the grilled skirt steak. The sauce and seasoning was virtually identical to the chicken kalamata, but where the chicken was moist in some parts and dry in others, the skirt steak was juicy from the first bite to the last. Easily the best skirt steak I've had in recent memory.

It had been 20+ years since my last visit to Athenian Room but I ate there recently and came away not very impressed. That was too bad because I remembered it very fondly. Maybe my tastes have changed. Maybe the place has slipped. Maybe they were having a bad day.

I will say that the skirt steak (pictured above in turkob's post) was pretty darned good -- definitely the best item of the 5 we ordered -- and the only one we actually finished. Chicken Kalamata Style, while drenched in olive oil and lemon juice, was so dry it was practically dessicated. I'm guessing it had been sitting around for quite some time. Taramosalata was fine but nothing special. Spanakopita was ok texturally but the filling was bland and lifeless. Gyros were dry, dry, dry and had a weird off flavor. This was at around 4 pm and it was my first meal of the day, so I think it says a lot that we left so much food uneaten because we were very hungry.

Service was fine but we did have one truly notable thing happen when we were seated in the darkest, back corner of the dining room. The place was only about 20% full and there were a few tables open near the window. We asked if we could sit at one of those instead. Our server explained to us that were reserved for the owner "because he likes to sit there." Wait, what? In all my years of dining out, I can't remember ever hearing anything like that before. In fact, I couldn't believe she said it. That's about as far from my philosophy about restaurant service as you can get. Total turn-off. Even if the food had been great -- which it most certainly wasn't -- that was a deal-breaker. Unless I lose a bet, I think it'll be at least another 20 years before I return.

=R=

ronnie_suburban wrote:Service was fine but we did have one truly notable thing happen when we were seated in the darkest, back corner of the dining room. The place was only about 20% full and there were a few tables open near the window. We asked if we could sit at one of those instead. Our server explained to us that were reserved for the owner "because he likes to sit there." Wait, what? In all my years of dining out, I can't remember ever hearing anything like that before. In fact, I couldn't believe she said it. That's about as far from my philosophy about restaurant service as you can get. Total turn-off. Even if the food had been great -- which it most certainly wasn't -- that was a deal-breaker. Unless I lose a bet, I think it'll be at least another 20 years before I return.

I sympathize and would feel the same, but there's one thing I don't get. There were a few tables near the window. Was the waitress saying that the owner likes to sit at all of them simultaneously?

riddlemay wrote:I sympathize and would feel the same, but there's one thing I don't get. There were a few tables near the window. Was the waitress saying that the owner likes to sit at all of them simultaneously?

One she probably thought was too large for us (even though it was an off hour and the restaurant was fairly empty), another had the reserved signs on it and several others in the most easterly room had stuff piled up on them.

=R=

Ah. Thanks. I share your outrage.

Salad, Greek fries, feta. Fine, nothing overwhelming, just fine. Service was good, the server friendly and on the ball, even the busboy came and checked on me in a positively friendly fashion.

Its been an easy ten years since my last visit to Athenian Room, not in a rush to go back, but it certainly seems a popular neighborhood spot.

Salad, Greek fries, feta

It ain't great. Maybe nominate it for a fine neighborhood restaurant award?

Several of the waitstaff are great; as well as the bussers... most of them in fact. One has gotten my order wrong 2-3 times, but I'm too nice to complain. I will say, though, that some of the managers are a bit curt and inhospitable. As ronnie_suburban points out, there's some bizarreness with those front most tables. It's one of those kinds of restaurants where the service level doesn't matter because of it's location, longstanding reputation, and deliciousness for the money.

A friend of mine got into an argument with one of the managers one time because he took a phone call - and was very private about it, too. He wasn't even asking for anything / trying to communicate with her. I realize the concept of no cell phones in places that are fine dining or expensive, but here, especially when being polite about it and not asking for anything? Silly.

Royal Lichter wrote:A friend of mine got into an argument with one of the managers one time because he took a phone call - and was very private about it, too. He wasn't even asking for anything / trying to communicate with her. I realize the concept of no cell phones in places that are fine dining or expensive, but here, especially when being polite about it and not asking for anything? Silly.

Not clear on the "not asking for anything" part. What would your friend have been asking for that would have made it less OK?

riddlemay wrote:

Royal Lichter wrote:A friend of mine got into an argument with one of the managers one time because he took a phone call - and was very private about it, too. He wasn't even asking for anything / trying to communicate with her. I realize the concept of no cell phones in places that are fine dining or expensive, but here, especially when being polite about it and not asking for anything? Silly.

Not clear on the "not asking for anything" part. What would your friend have been asking for that would have made it less OK?

what I meant is that it is rude to be on a cell phone if you are also attempting to ask waitstaff a question/place an order/put your name on a waiting list, etc. he was totally minding his own business and the woman got into a pretty serious argument with him.

At any rate, the food is still great; my nomination for a GNR still stands...

GNRs only take into account the number of posts on LTHforum, combined with the consensus of 11 voters (many of whom don't live within city limits). GNRs don't take into account the number of years a place has been open, it's steady stream of business, or the way that the people who actually go affectionately talk about it.

Ask any resident of Lincoln Park for a good, affordable neighborhood meal and 8/10 times Athenian Room is a top choice in the conversation. Yes, the chicken breast can come out dry from time to time, but you can consistently get good, reasonable food and expect basically the same thing every time. It's extremely dependable and is a staple of the Lincoln Park community.

Royal Lichter wrote:

riddlemay wrote:

Royal Lichter wrote:A friend of mine got into an argument with one of the managers one time because he took a phone call - and was very private about it, too. He wasn't even asking for anything / trying to communicate with her. I realize the concept of no cell phones in places that are fine dining or expensive, but here, especially when being polite about it and not asking for anything? Silly.

Not clear on the "not asking for anything" part. What would your friend have been asking for that would have made it less OK?

what I meant is that it is rude to be on a cell phone if you are also attempting to ask waitstaff a question/place an order/put your name on a waiting list, etc. he was totally minding his own business and the woman got into a pretty serious argument with him.

At any rate, the food is still great; my nomination for a GNR still stands...

Thanks. I understand now.