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| - For those of you from out of town, this is a small, local chain of souvlaki and yero (gyro, or doner, if you prefer) joints that's been around forever. I've been eating their stuff since the early eighties. I'll the give you the bad news first: they're a *chain*. There are some things they do in an utterly formulaic way; the sides, especially. The fries and rice are elementary school cafeteria-quality, at best, and can be safely avoided. Their yero is nothing special; it's meatloaf. I haven't bothered to get one of their salads in ten or fifteen years.
What draws me back, time and time again, is their pork souvlaki. On pita. And not with the silly white sauces, no; with the red, *hot* sauce. A Greek friend tells me the red sauce is a pretty common thing in Greece, but I've yet to find any other souvlaki joint in Montreal that offers it. And that red sauce, gentle reader, is the secret.
Picture this: Griddle-fried pita. Grilled pork cube kebab. A generous mound of fresh, shredded lettuce and bright sliced onion; a few slices of beefsteak tomato; all laced with a spoonful of a deep, salty, tangy, spicy peppery-dark red sauce that bears gratifyingly little resemblance to ketchup. Rolled into a tight cone, and handed to you piping hot. Bite into *that*.
Now picture that, at the end of a cold day spent walking downtown. Three of those, to go. With a good pale ale to wash them down waiting at home. Oh, mercy.
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