A peculiar new evolution is occurring among ethnic restaurants in New Orleans. And, I suspect, everywhere else. We are enjoying a wider range of international cuisines. Twenty years ago, if you wanted to eat Korean, Colombian, Turkish, Peruvian, or Ethiopian food hereabouts, your choices were between few and none. Now we have all those, and their numbers are increasing. The strange part is that the ethnic cuisines that have been here a long time have faded as other styles from the same general part of the earth moved in. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the market for Greek food. I remember when we had ten or twelve. Now there are two. Why? Because the similar Middle Eastern restaurants, now numbering two dozen, have lured that particular hunger of yours from the Greeks. It's almost like the Trojan War. Fortunately, those two Greek restaurants are pretty good. I covered Mr. Gyros here a couple of years ago, and here's the other one.
Although New Orleans is home to a large, active, long-term Greek community, it has never had many good Greek restaurants. Despite its small size, Acropolis has a large menu of the Greek standards. Meanwhile, the presence of pizza and pasta makes it family-friendly.
The Acropolis is the current manifestation of a tenuous string of restaurants going back to an old cafe and taverna called Teddy's Grill, in the CBD in the 1950s. The present owners (there have been several) still have a few dishes from the old days--notably the six-onion soup under a pastry crust. Acropolis opened its present location in 1999, and caught the attention of those of us who love the cuisine. (Greeks, curiously, are not especially good customers, because they cook this kind of food at home and think they do it better than any restaurant does.)
The tables are a little crowded into a small, usually full dining room. The restaurant and its strip mall are a little hard to see unless you know exactly where on Veterans it is. (Does "a block before Cleary" help?) It appears that there are virtually no parking spaces in front, but there are more behind the restaurant (and a rear entrance, too).
The markerboard with its table d'hote lunch and dinner specials offers the most interesting eating here.
| Attitude | 2 |
|---|---|
| Environment | 1 |
| Hipness | 0 |
| Local Color | 0 |
| Service | 1 |
| Value | 2 |
| Wine | 0 |
