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Emilitsa
547 Congress St., Portland
(207) 221-0245
Open for dinner Monday to Thursday 5 to 9, Friday and Saturday 5 to 10
Entrees $18 to $35
Hospitality -- Well-trained servers will offer tastes of any wine and much information about any dish
Handicapped accessible
Happy the customer who sits down in this beautiful space and enjoys the Greek wine and Greek flavors.
Portland welcomed the chance to dine on dishes full of fragrant olive oil, tart lemon, pungent oregano and more when Emilitsa first opened in January 2008. Set in a long, high-ceiling room lined with exposed brick, with a cotton flokati or sheepskin and a charming wall painting, Emilitisa is serving sophisticated Greek meals. Dinner might start with a free bite of split pea puree on oil-drenched crisp toast spears and end with a tender olive oil cake warm with orange peel and rich with whipped thick cream. In between you might encounter the loup de mer or Mediterranean sea bass is served whole, roasted nicely, with its fine-textured white flesh, or lamb chops, or a flavorful dry-aged porterhouse steak from grass-fed beef cattle raised on a Maine farm.
Inexpensive dishes of moussaka with beef and a vegetarian choice make this place possible on a budget. The Greek wines are varied, but a taste is offered to allow a customer to find one that exactly suits -- as the Palivou Nemea ($9 a glass, $36 a bottle) did my friends and me one night. That strong red is from a vineyard over the Bay of Corinth on the Peloponnese. Savor the sheep's milk feta and good olives on every dinner plate.
May 2008