![\"Restaurant-OCT14\"](\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Restaurant-OCT14.jpg\")
<\/a>Trattoria Athena offers a unique blending of Italian and Greek cuisine, reflecting the heritage of the owners. Tim O\u2019Brien\u2019s roots are in Italy, and Marc Provencher\u2019s extend to Thessaloniki. On a festive Sunday visit, we find the offerings are mainly Greek and prepared by Marc.<\/p>\nTempting choices (five appetizers, five entrees, three desserts) appear on a chalkboard. The special four-course, fixed-price Sunday dinner is $35 to $40; an additional $5 includes unlimited\u2013and very good\u2013house wine.<\/p>\n
Trattoria Athena achieves culinary heights without losing any of the friendly comfort of the Greek tavernas we remember from our travels there, including the fresh, local ingredients. A wonderful appetizer, Achivades<\/em>, for example, features steamed littleneck clams from Harpswell. They\u2019re tender yet meaty, in a delicious broth flavored with house-grown sorrel, white wine, and butter.<\/p>\n Excellent bread makes for good dipping; it\u2019s served with superb olive oil from Lakonia Greek Products in Saco.<\/p>\n Next we share halloumi<\/em>, a wildly flavorful cow\u2019s milk cheese from Durham\u2019s Spring Day Creamery, grilled to perfection and enhanced by pistachios, local honey, and seared figs sporting a tiny bit of sea salt.<\/p>\n Our next course, which we ask to share (there is absolutely no feeling of being rushed here), is a real show-stopper. Moschari Stifado<\/em> is stew made with veal from Eastern River Cattle Company in Dresden. Braised slowly for hours with onions, garlic, fresh tomatoes, cabbage, rosemary, and roasted red peppers, this robust dish is completely satisfying, full of the most tender and flavorful meat imaginable. We raise our glasses to the chef\u2013Yiasou, Markos!<\/em><\/p>\n On to another shared course, we happily devour a swordfish steak. I am looking for a secret here\u2013the fish is as good as we\u2019ve had anywhere, lightly seared and simply prepared with nothing more than olive oil, lemon, and fresh dill. \u201cNo secrets,\u201d says Marc. \u201cJust the freshest fish available and don\u2019t overcook it.\u201d It\u2019s served over the finest peppery mixture of baby mustard, arugula, and dandelion greens.<\/p>\n Ah, now for glika<\/em>, the sweets. They\u2019ve run out of Bee Balm Br\u00fbl\u00e9e<\/em>, but an apple and fig crisp and Kolokithopita<\/em> (zucchini cake with pistachios), each topped with fresh whipped cream, are wonderful.<\/p>\n Reservations here are a must.<\/p>\n Trattoria Athena, 25 Mill St., Brunswick. Tuesday through Sunday 5-9 p.m. 721-0700,trattoriaathena.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" October 2014 Maine Mediterranean A Brunswick hot spot has a peasant soul. Review by Diane Hudson Trattoria Athena offers a unique blending of Italian and Greek cuisine, reflecting the heritage of the owners. Tim O\u2019Brien\u2019s roots are in Italy, and Marc Provencher\u2019s extend to Thessaloniki. On a festive Sunday visit, we find the offerings are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10119,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[86],"class_list":["post-10115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","tag-october-2014"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10115"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10122,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10115\/revisions\/10122"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}