Dining Out: Greek-Italian-American!

While perusing our ‘Lifestyle’ discounted dining options, which expires on May 31^st, I decided to go on-line to check out a casual restaurant that was a bit off our normal route to run errands.  I discovered a menu that included Greek, Italian and normal non-ethnic American cuisine. 

We’ve been looking for Greek and Italian food ever since we arrived in East Tennessee… While we’ve found good Italian pasta, (See Willie’s Restaurant at: http://bigdaddydavesbitsandpieces.blogspot.com/2013/05/willies-restaurant-rebooted-seymour-tn.html), up until now we’ve struck out as regards Greek cuisine.  

So, on a very recent drive to Knoxville to run some errands, we deviated from our normal route and we ended up here, at Pero’s On The Hill on South Northshore Drive in Knoxville.  As usual for us, it was a bit after lunchtime… 

This is just one view of the facilities and dining areas at Pero’s.  Note the counter seating right in front of the pizza oven!  Customers can sit at the counter and watch their pizza being made.  We watched Sammy Peroulas, (hence the name Pero’s), forming a couple of great looking thin pizza crusts.

This is one view of the back dining room at Pero’s On The Hill.  Pero’s is truly a big restaurant with lots of seating…

This is the bar that’s located in the back dining room at Pero’s On The Hill.  We noted that a jazz group performs at Pero’s every Friday night from 6:30 PM until 9:30 PM. 

This is the front dining room where we had our lunch at Pero’s.  Our waitress, Briteny, was very helpful and informative.  She was the pizza maker but has now moved up to a waitress position… Briteny is a big cheerleader for the owners, Sammy Peroulas and Chandler Goff, as well as for the restaurant itself! 

If the weather is nice and you like to eat outdoors, Pero’s On The Hill provides this attractive patio area as another dining option.

OK…now onto lunch itself! 

Gyros are one of our favorite foods…and they are not readily available in East Tennessee.  Up until now, the best gyros we’d found were provided at a booth at the Sweetwater Tennessee Flea Market!

The key to good gyros is the Tzatziki Sauce…and the sauce here at Pero’s was as good as any we’d had in Chicago.  It was nice and garlicky with just the right ‘bite’ on the flavor buds!  For my side, I chose the sautéed spinach, also with lots of garlic… It was very good!

Laurie also had the Gyros… Given the garlic in the sauce, it’s almost mandatory that a couple that plans to spend the rest of the day together, has Gyros together as well!  For her side, she ordered the Greek Potato Salad…and it was another winner!

Regarding the gyros meat itself… It was cut or sliced quite a bit thinner than what we were used to in Chicago.  The flavor was there but the thinner slices don’t have the texture that we had grown accustomed to.  Nevertheless, you can be assured that we will partake of this gyros treat again!

This is Pero’s On The Hill’s special $5.00 weekday luncheon menu!  What a deal!  Our Lifestyle discount didn’t apply to this special menu…but for this price, who cares? 

The regular menu includes such items as Spanakopita, Tiropita, a Hummus Plate, Greek Fries, Greeksadillas, a Greek Salad, Greek Burger, Pasticcio and Souvlaki, all topped off by Baklava.

So… Sammy aka Sam came over to our table to ask us how we liked our lunch.  He may have noticed that we were taking photos and raptly watching him make thin crust pizzas.  He mentioned that he has a Carnivore pizza that’s topped with their great spaghetti meat sauce.  I told him that it would be hard to top the meat sauce at Willie’s in Seymour.  He muttered something about my ‘throwing down the gauntlet’ and headed for the kitchen.  He came back with a cup of warm meat sauce and 2 spoons!  The sauce was so good that we forgot to take a photo until it was too late.  I had to concede that his meat sauce was at least as good as Willie’s…

The menu at Pero’s On The Hill includes many American and Italian favorites in addition to a plethora of sandwiches and pizza with red, white or pesto sauces.  Pero’s is open daily for lunch and dinner.  The restaurant is located at 7706 South Northshore Drive in Knoxville Tennessee.  Phone: 865-694-6900.  Pero’s On The Hill’s website is at http://www.perosonthehill.com/.

We did return to try the pizza…and that visit will be featured in an upcoming blog to be published in the next few days.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by and helping us with our search for quality ethnic dining in East Tennessee!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave