Ashland, 5: Going Greek

Ashland, Sept. 21—

FOR YEARS WE PATRONIZED an Italian restaurant here — not on every visit to Ashland, but often enough. There wasn't anything special about it; I suppose the food was mediocre, neither bad nor outstanding. But I liked the staff, and they had a good selection of Italian wines, and the outdoor patio was pleasant in early evenings before the theater.

It closed last year, and has been replaced by a Greek restaurant. It too offers food neither bad nor outstanding, the menu relying on standards like avgolemono, dolmas, moussaka, pastitsio. The wine list offers retsina and ordinary Greek red, along with other labels. A cursory survey of Web-based reviews finds a range of opinion, though there's general agreement that the service could be more professional, a number of wines on the list are not actually available, and the noise level is high.

I started with the avgolemono, a nice cup of soup though its chicken tasted mass-produced, and went on to the pastitsio, generous and rich (I like cloves) though somewhat oversalted — a quality noticed by others at our table. The Greek-style coffee afterward was pleasant.

White: Boutari, Santorini, 2008 (a delicious wine); Rogue Valley Red (Hinman Vineyards), 2007

•Blue Greek on Granite, 5 Granite St., Ashland; tel. (541) 708-5150