John Volo
When I think of Mediterranean food, I envision my wife and me
lounging seaside on some sun-drenched Greek isle gorging on a lavish
assortment of local delicacies made from the freshest ingredients.
In reality, I found myself at Coach's Mediterranean Grill on Main
Street with my buddy Eric, gorging on a wide variety of Mediterranean
delights.
Mediterranean Delight is actually the name for Coach's appetizer
platter. This platter contains hummus, falafel, stuffed grape leaves,
tabbouleh, feta cheese, Kalamata olives and pita bread. While gourmet
grocers are stocking their shelves with exotically flavored hummus
(think: cracked chile or roasted red pepper flavor), Coach's serves
old-school, straight-up hummus. It tastes great as a spread for pita
bread or as a dip for falafel.
The falafel is a fried mixture of garbanzo beans and spices. The
half patty-half ball has a coarse outside and a soft, garlicky
inside. The American version of falafel could be hush puppies. It's
easy to see why falafel is sold on practically every other corner in
the Middle East. The grape leaves stuffed with seasoned rice were
mildly sweet, providing a nice contrast to the falafel.
I'm not a big fan of the tabbouleh -- a combination of cracked
wheat, parsley, green onions and cucumber mixed with lemon juice and
olive oil. The two sugar cubed-size blocks of feta cheese could have
been more potent, and we were only given two olives. Two olives! I've
seen more olives in a martini.
With our appetizers I drank a bottle of Mythos. This Greek brewed
lager is not distinctive enough to seek out at the market. Looking to
have a glass of wine with my meal, I was disappointed to see not a
single offering from Greece (even though I don't have the highest
regard for Greek wines) on the wine list.
Since Eric and I were looking to sample a variety of items we
decided to mix and match a couple entrees. We could have gotten the
mixed Mediterranean feast for two, which would have covered the
essentials, but I guess I'm just not secure enough with my
masculinity to admit publicly my sharing of a dinner for two with a
male buddy. Instead we got Coach's mixed grill and the seafood
combination plate.
Coach's mixed grill had a long skewer of chicken, gyro meat, lamb
chop, kofte (homemade grilled lamb and beef patties), a grilled bell
pepper and grilled tomatoes over rice pilaf. I thoroughly enjoyed
them all. The white-meat chicken shish kebab was well-seasoned; the
tasty gyro meat did well sharing a fork with a moist rice pilaf; the
