Picture it, Greece, 1956. A corner tavern. Red checkered table cloths. The old man locals at every table, indulging in wine and cigarettes. A few couples scattered here and there. The space, smaller than your bathroom.
Oh wait. This is Astoria, present day.
Welcome to Corner 26 Tavern. The best greek food in Astoria. Sorry Kyclades - or however you spell it.
This is not a restaurant review. i promise.
Michelle has been dying to try this restaurant. After "yelping" the reviews on it, which were rave, it was time to go. Afterall its just one block from our abode. We have passed it dozens of times during the warmer weather periods where people would enjoy the outdoor seating.
Lucky for us, we had a more intimate experience.
We were bordered by every greek man in astoria. We were the only people speaking english, besides maybe the asians sitting behind Michelle. As i gulped my wine and devoured my very amazing meal, i was hoping to be leaving until...the waitress took away our half carafe of wine....and refilled it.
"this is from grrregory" (roll of the R) she said. and she called to him at the front door. Gregory, a plump old greek man with spectacles came over to us and put his hands on our shoulders. We thanked him. He said "enjoy beautiful girls" with his heavy greek accent. we tell our waitress we will now be here for a long time "good!" she exclaims. ohhhhhh boy.
Awesome. We were now obligated to drink this wine and look good for the greek men. They were obviously going home to shriveled up greek olive wives.
We are approached by another man (greek, just incase you were wondering) from one of the tables asks us if we mind that he smokes inside the restaurant - the asians have already left. we politely tell him no, we don't mind. what else were we going to say? we just got free wine! these guys are obviously in the greek mafia!
Moments later, another gentleman asks michelle "you like a-greek food?" michelle responds "yes very much" i look at her with confusion "its teddy, our italian handyman for the apartment." i am shocked she recognizes him. Of course though i have been gulping this amazing wine. "i should ask him when he's finally ever coming to fix our stove range" she says.
By the end of the second carafe, michelle calls teddy out on being a lazy handyman, i kiss and hug Gregory who apparently is the owner and we wound up having the best greek food in town. Who knew. Michelle used the classic line "see? you can't judge a book by its cover, told you this place was awesome."
We stroll home and both admit we were creeped out that Teddy could tell these guys where we lived. We shrug. Tell eachother we are not going to Mosaic (the wine bar on the corner) and laugh our way into our apartment where amber is not phased we are home.
The end.
