Ok, new eateries update.

[quote="seth lustig"]Apparently [i][b][color=green]Emerald City[/color][/b][/i] has landed too! A new coffee shop has opened up next to my favorite pizza place, Village Pizza on Bank Row. Apparently they open early and at least tonight were open late (for Greenfield standards.)
Haven't been there yet, but as I hear he was giving away coffee thsi week, anyone that customer friendly has to be worth a try...tomorrow morning.[/quote]

Yes indeedy. Emerald City opened up on Monday or Tuesday. I saw it on Tuesday while driving past and noticed a bright sign inside the window, then realized they served coffee. Later on I stopped in and was pleasantly surprised by the shop.

Its a small shop, no places to sit down and enjoy a cup of coffee, but the atmosphere was very nice. They offer some Wizard of Oz gift packages for those who are interested in that kind of thing. They generally have 4-6 different types of coffee available. They also offer various different espresso drinks and frozen drinks. A light selection of pastries (coffee cakes, turnovers, bagels, etc).

The coffee itself is a "fair trade" coffee roasted locally in Northampton by the company Indigo Coffee. They sell the coffee for $8/lb which is pretty decent for locally roasted coffee.

The hours are from 5am-5pm M-F -- 5am-3pm Sat (I think) -- Sunday I forget the hours.

sounds good but where is it?

if u wanna know where tofu to go is, heres the adress and phone number

265 Main Street, Greenfield, MA 01301 | Phone 413-772-8638

i was talking about Emerald City

Emerald City's hidden behind a tree on Bank Row, next to village pizza.

Hope & Olive -- I haven't heard of, what kind of food do they have

Tofu A Gogo -- well I wouldn't step foot in there...:/

Emerald City -- Sounds rlly good, I'll make a point to check it out.

[quote="Daisuke's Angel"]Hope & Olive -- I haven't heard of, what kind of food do they have

Tofu A Gogo -- well I wouldn't step foot in there...:/

Emerald City -- Sounds rlly good, I'll make a point to check it out.[/quote]

Hope & Olive has kind of hippy/crunchy fare. And a well stocked bar.On the higher end, $12-20 main courses iirc. And Sunday brunch!

What is up with the anti-vegetarian bias? It's like, just because someone has put their foot down about not slaughtering living, breathing, thinking emotional creatures, cutting the muscles off and cooking up the fat and then eating it, it all of a sudden means they don't know how to cook broccoli or make a good grilled cheese sandwich. They are kinda pricey though, but lots of good flavors.

Problem with Emerald City for me....I never go by there when I want coffee. Terrible location for me.

The new Bart's Ice Cream is pretty. In case you haven't been, it's where Roberts (or was it Richardsons?) was, where Bogies was, where the Laughing Goat was, where The Coffee Club was. Coffee Club was the last one I saw successful there. But you can't really blame Bogies. When you sell drugs within a mile of a school in MA, you tend to stop showing up for work! :P

[quote="seth lustig"]Problem with Emerald City for me....I never go by there when I want coffee. Terrible location for me.[/quote]

Jay the owner of Emerald City keeps telling me that he will probably be closing up shop soon. The location has not brought in much in the way of customers due to its odd location. Plus with two other larger coffee shops right up on main street, you have to go out of your way to get down to Emerald City to get a cup of joe. He had cut back his hours as well due to the lack of money coming in. Only open weekdays from 6am-5pm as of right now. Claims he might open back up on Saturdays once it gets nicer out.

That sucks, but I can totally believe it. It's just not a convenient place to stop for coffee. And there are [u]a lot[/u] of easy options for coffee in Gfld.

The problem with Emerald City is that if you are coming from the free parking behind Wilsons you have to pass three other bigger coffee shops and cross a busy street to get there. Granted the coffee at Barts isn't nearly as good.

If it was where the old junk shop was on Chapman street it still wouldn't be on main street, but it would have been freaking close to the free parking.

I jus don't like tofu, and not man veggies, its the restraunt for me, I aggree with the whole vegen thing, but i will never give up meat.

Bart's is rlly good <33

So, this Wednesday we had the grand opening of... El Greco Cafe!

Okay, I lied, it wasn't so grand. In fact, the two times that I stopped in there, business was at a crawl.

I showed up around 8:30 to see what they had for breakfast selections, and I was the only customer there. I missed the offer of free coffee from 7-8, but I don't drink coffee, so that's all right. I'm really hoping that they had their early-morning traffic then, and I was just seeing the post-coffee lull in business.

I took a quick glance over their lunch menu at that point; the people there told me that yes, they would be open for lunch that day (just had to be sure, because apparently they didn't have all of their breakfast things ready at that point).

When I came back a little after noon, there were two or three other diners. An improvement over the morning, but still not looking so great for the opening day. I was impressed when one of the people working said, "Oh, you're back!" It's always good to know that you're not a face in the crowd (but maybe it's just because they hadn't had any crowds yet).

I ended up ordering the #1 Deal, which is a classic gyro (lamb, lettuce, tomato, onions and tzatziki) rice or fries (I went with the rice), and a 16-oz soda. Service was pleasant and quick enough. I was a little disappointed by the soda selection (Sprite, Coke, Diet Coke, or substitute juice or milk from the cooler for a quarter), and ended up going with a Sprite. I was given a Coke instead.

The food!
The gyro was excellent. The lamb was seasoned well and thinly sliced, not a bit dry. The tomato, onion and lettuce were crisp, cool, and tasted great. The flatbread was just soft enough, and held everything in perfectly. The tzatziki was cool, refreshing, and had a nice citrus tang to it, really bringing everything together.

I was a little disappointed with the rice. It was cooked enough, but was watery and very salty. It came with a lemon wedge, which I ended up using on the gyro, because the rice was salty to the point where adding lemon juice to it couldn't have ended well.

The meal cost a little over 7 dollars when tax was figured in. All in all, I'd say that it wasn't quite worth it. The gyro was excellent, the service was friendly, and my chair was comfortable, but I think I'll pass up the combo next time and save a few dollars by ordering the gyro on its own, maybe washed down with a soda from the game store.

So, I definitely recommend trying the place out, if you have 6+ dollars sitting around at lunch time, because their gyros are great. I'm hoping that the side orders will improve to match that quality as times goes on, but for now, the sandwiches are where it's at.

Kassidy is...the Phantom Gourmet

Thanks for the review Kassidy, I was kind of curious about that place and will try it out on your recommendation.

El Greco Cafe, visit two:
This time around, I brought along Chris and Jal, plus my mom and her boyfriend.
Seeing as I was dissatisfied with the rice and soda last time, I ordered the classic gyro on its own ($5.24 or so, I think), with a side of spicy curly fries (can't recall the price). The meal cost me $8.03 total when the tax was calculated in.

Like before, the gyro was excellent. However, there were a few issues. The vegetables didn't look quite as fresh as they did on the opening day. I'd say that it's probably a result of poor turnout. If customers don't start cycling in, everything will wilt, and wilted lettuce with dry onions and watery tomatoes is no fun at all (I'm glad that it was just looking a little less crisp at this point).

I also thought that there was a little too much tzatziki on mine, this time around, but that's just a matter of personal taste. I prefer somewhat more dry sandwiches. Lastly, I got a bite of something tough. Still not sure what it was.

The spicy curly fries were decent, buuut... they weren't really spicy curly fries. Curly fries they were, and excellent ones at that. Crisp, hot, and... curly! Spicy, not so much. Well seasoned, but there was no kick. The ketchup was also on the bland side. I'll probably grab some hot sauce next time around (they have packets of that, too).

So, that was my food. Jal got the #5 special (spanakopita with a Greek salad), plus an additional spanakopita. Now, Jal is apparently a master of the spinach pies, with discriminating tastes (that's how he's presented it, anyhow), and he seemed pretty much thrilled with what he got, so all's well on the spanakopita front, if that's something that you like.

Chris had... a bagel with veggie cream cheese. Not very adventurous, but he said that it was one of the best bagels he'd ever had, and that this would be his new bagel place. That's pretty impressive, I suppose.

Today's big test for me was... the stuffed grape leaves! My mom had an order of those, and I managed to snag one. Absolutely [i]excellent.[/i] They were warmed just enough to really bring all of the flavors out, game with a side of nice, thick tzatziki for dipping, and had just the right blend of lamb and rice to get a texture that was firm enough to hold while still being soft. Two thumbs up on those, especially at a price of 8 for $4.00.

So, in summary:
-The gyros are still great, but the place needs a better turnout to keep the veggies fresh
-The spicy curly fries are great, but not spicy
-The salads come piled high with everything, and the spanakopita master says that those spinach pies are awesome
-The bagels are excellent(?)
-The stuffed grape leaves get a big two thumbs up on taste and texture

Look out, El Greco Cafe. If I keep on coming in with friends, I'll be through your menu in no time.

You know, to this day, I don't think I've ever seen ANYTHING spicy that is actually advertised as spicy.

You know, I think you're right. That especially applies to curly fries. I always see them advertised as spicy, but not [i]once[/i] have they been spicy. Always seasoned and tasty, but never with a kick.

Years ago Frendley's had some kind of Cajun chicken sandwich thing that was really good. I remember making a big deal about it because it was the first food advertised as spicy that I thought actually had a decent amount of spiceyness. I got it every time I went there for a month or two until one time when it didn't taste spicy at all. I ws going to send it back because I thought they must have mixed my order up with somebody who'd ordered a regular chicken sandwich. They told me no, it was the right one. People had complained it was too spicy so Frendley's had dropped the spicyness level down to barely detectable. I never ordered it again.

No sorry...even THAT sandwich was not spicy. 99% of people are just panzies. :)

I wish I had a copy of this, but one of my former students once wrote a comic strip of me at the school lunch table trying a new hot sauce I had bought.
I take a bite of my sandwich, immediately belch forth a giant stream of flames incinerating all the kids at the table.

The last frame was me saying, "What a rip off, this isn't even remotely hot."

:)

I know it wasn't killer spicy, but since I was probably around 12 when I was getting those they were pretty good then. Now as you said, with most people being pansies about spicyness I know I'm never going to find something really spicy at any big chain place. I still hold out hope for small local places though. I've recently been told about a Cajun style BBQ place near me that I really want to try out.

The pansey thing also applies to sour. A few years back my mother did some volenteer thing where Gaerilick Farms was suppling free drinks to every body there. The various flavored milks and the new lemonaide they were going to come out with. My mom brought one home for me to try. She didn't tell me noone at the event had done more than take a first sip of the lemonaide and give it back because it was too sour. I popped the top off mine and drained the thing in one go then told my mom she should have brought home more than the one bottle. Naturaley when thier lemonaide finally showed up in stores it was nothing like that first one.