Enoteca Athena, a new restaurant and wine bar, joins The Little Dog Coffee Sshop, Little Tokyo and Little Saigon on Maine Street, as the little sister Tratorria Athena, a Parents’ Weekend favorite.
Enoteca Athena has the same cozy atmosphere and locally-sourced Mediterranean cuisine as the Trattoria, minus the trek to Fort Andross and the strain on your wallet. The restaurant is both a wine bar offering small bites to share and a sit-down restaurant with salads, appetizers and main courses.
Jenna Bowley, a bartender and waitress at the eatery, highlights their emphasis on sourcing food locally.
“Locavore and farm-to-table, it’s very important to us,” she said. “We continuously keep strong relationships with the same farmers.”
While she thinks highly of the homegrown ingredients, Bowley is even more proud of the artisanal wine list.
“The real star of the show is the vino here,” she said.
Enoteca’s wines are all hand-selected and imported from family-run vineyards in Greece and Italy. The restaurant owners, with direct Greek and Italian roots, spend time every year visiting the European vineyards, sampling their wines, and nurturing friendships with the families.
Maina Handmaker ’11 works at Six River Farm, a primary supplier of Enoteca Athena’s produce. Handmaker became interested in farming during an agricultural apprenticeship with Bowdoin Outing Club Director Mike Woodruff.
“I knew September of my senior year that this is what I was going to be doing,” Handmaker said.
Soon after graduation, she joined the Six River Team full-time, where she helps foster the farm-to-table community in Brunswick. She can rattle off the first names and profiles of each proprietor Six River serves, illustrating the close relationship the farm has with local chefs.
Speaking about her dining experience at Enoteca Athena, Handmaker gives a quick and enthusiastic review: it was good.
We have to agree with Handmaker. With local, authentic, relatively inexpensive fare, and a relaxed, inviting ambience within walking distance of campus, Enoteca Athena provided us with a satiating, satisfying dining experience.
We were hard-pressed to choose between the dizzying array of spreads, appetizers, and cheeses, but we finally settled on sharing a little bit of everything.
We sampled the tzatsiki, a rich spread made of Greek yogurt and cucumber, and the htipiti, a spicy spread with feta and grilled red peppers.
The bread was unremarkable and the spreads were both quite salty, but they whetted our appetites for the courses to come.
A highlight of the meal was the dolmathes: a traditional Greek dish of grape-leaves stuffed with rice, raisins, pine nuts and herbs and served with yogurt. The complex flavors melded together perfectly, balancing and enhancing one another.
Our only regret was not ordering a second helping as a hint of cinnamon lingered on the tips of our tongues and the plate of dolmathes was cleared. Next came savory artichokes wrapped in prosciutto. Sweet balsamic vinegar completed the mouthwatering combination of smoky meat and earthy artichoke. Share the spreads, order an extra helping of dolmathes, and know that appetizer portions serve one.
The main courses were diverse and reasonably priced, and the revithokeftedes (the Greek dishes are a mouthful to pronounce), which is simply baked falafel in pita, was a tantalizing vegetarian option. If you choose to indulge in the Peposo (braised beef served on polenta cakes) or the lamb burger, you can rest easy knowing all the meat is sourced from local farms.
Greek and Italian options abound and it is impossible to choose the wrong main course.
As sad as it was to take the last bites of our entrées, our friendly waitress assured us that dessert would not disappoint. We were more than satisfied with the generous square of baklava, a traditional Mediterranean pastry made of layers of phyllo dough with walnuts and honey in between, and a special, seasonal dessert of the night, grilled peaches with whipped cream. The baklava was unique and unexpected; the texture of the nutty, sweet filling complemented the flaky melt-in-your-mouth phyllo layers.
Enoteca Athena is a must-try for foodies looking to explore off campus.
A few short blocks from the familiar hustle and bustle of Moulton and Thorne, Enoteca Athena is a delicious way to spice up your usual mealtime routine.
Grab some friends, clear a few hours from your busy schedule, and let the food transport you. We promise you won’t regret it!