WHO’S IN CHARGE
Thank goodness for consistent neighborhood restaurants we can count on to have good food when we want a satisfying meal and don’t have time to shop, cook, or go out. I’m partial to family-run places and the Karavasilis family, who own and operate Cohasset’s Olympus Grille, gives families a great name.
Olympus serves the dishes Anastasia Karavasilis grew up eating with her mother and grandmother in Katerini, Greece, and her Boston-born sons, Steven and Jordan, take care of everything else. “We serve family recipes handed down generation to generation, through my mother and grandmother and her grandmother,” said Steven.
One or both brothers has always been at the restaurant when I’ve stopped in on occasion over the last five years to get my go-to faves: the avgolemono soup (it’s chicken and rice with lemon) and the butter beans. Since branching out lately, I’ve discovered how well Olympus does other dishes, too. The brothers always seem to be both efficient and relaxed when taking your order. They also do hospitable things like throw in some terrific tzatziki (they know you want it) and not mention it.
THE LOCALE
This is an everyday eatery: The lights don’t have dimmers. Two sidewalk tables, with red umbrellas, however, ratchet up the desirability factor big time, especially since the restaurant is set back well off the road. If you’re crazy about sitting outside, remember Olympus. The 22-seat spot is one storefront in the stretch of good-looking stores and second-floor residences that constitute Old Colony Square at Cohasset Station on Route 3A. It has eight indoor tables, including two set in nooks next to the front windows. A counter for ordering sits adjacent to a glass cabinet filled with cold sides, and a stainless kitchen extends to the rear where you can sometimes see Anastasia cooking.
ON THE MENU
The tourlou: a rustic baked dish of large hunks of eggplant, carrots, zucchini, onion, potatoes, and garlic in olive oil
Olympus does all the foods you’d expect: wraps, gyros, skewers, fried appetizers, salads, and a different daily entree assigned to each weekday (so if they have stuffed peppers, you know it’s Monday, etc.). The aforementioned meaty and mild butter beans ($4.69) are huge limas somehow baked to deliciousness. For a non-meat meal, they’re wonderful with another hot side, the tourlou ($4.69). It’s a rustic, baked dish of large hunks of eggplant, carrots, zucchini, onion, potatoes, and garlic in olive oil. Entrees are served with your choice of hot sides, all five of which are wonderful, and an iceberg Greek salad (feta, olives, grape tomatoes, red onion) with a dressing I don’t love, but there’s good olive oil and vinegar on the tables. (Iceberg gets a bad rap, but I like it because it holds up well and delivers some crispy rawness to your meal.) We enjoyed the grilled shrimp skewers with rice ($16.69) and ordered the roasted potatoes (quartered, peeled potatoes seasoned with a bit of lemon and olive oil) to go with the good grilled chicken skewers ($15.99). The Karavasilis’s (vegan) grape leaves ($4.59) are lovely bundles of tangy leaves enclosing creamy herbed rice. Friday’s special — the tender baked lamb ($18.59) — is served with home-style green beans in a light tomato sauce and Thursday’s moussaka ($14.99) is to die for: a square serving of the mouth-watering eggplant and ground beef casserole, with béchamel sauce, topped with whipped potatoes. Absolutely try it.
Olympus Grille, 132 Chief Justice Cushing Highway, Cohasset, 781-923-1917, www.olympusgrille.com .
Joan Wilder can be reached at joan.wilder@gmail.com.
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