Power Lunch: Everything Greek

Restaurant: El Greco Cafe

Address: 1592 Main St., Sarasota, Fla., 34236

Phone: 941-365-2234

Website: www.elgrecocafe.com

Lunch guests: Adam DeClerico, sales executive with Chia Bia, an Ireland-based natural foods company with a U.S. headquarters in Clearwater; and Andrea Dennis, founder of Bradenton-based Stellar Copywriting & Public Relations.

Reservations: Not required.

Parking: Can be difficult. Location is one of the busiest blocks of Main Street. City officials recently bagged digital parking meters, which makes parking less confusing.

One-hour lunch test: Passed. Service is fast and attentive. Drinks are refilled frequently, and servers checked back on table regularly.

See and be seen: A large share of movers and shakers frequent the restaurant. The offices of SunTrust Bank, Wells Fargo and Bank of America are nearby, and several bankers are regulars. Sarasota city and county officials also eat at El Greco semi-regularly.

Privacy: Restaurant is split into two rooms. The front room is a little nosier than the back room, though each area offers tables in corners or against the windows that are better for deal-making chats. In general, the restaurant can get loud during the busy lunch periods.

Ambiance: A combination of Old European style and an upscale feel mark El Greco. Tables in one corner of the front room offer window views of Main Street and Orange Avenue. That's a high foot traffic location, which makes it a good place for people watching. There are outdoors tables available, too.

Food: The menu is thick with numerous Greek and Mediterranean choices. The appetizer list, for instance, includes Sagan Opa! which is broiled Kasseri cheese that's flamed with brandy at the table. (Servers will yell Opa!) Other appetizers: Calamari Tiganito, lightly floured fried calamari, and Dolmades, seasoned organic meat and rice wrapped inside grape leaves.

Two of the more popular lunch selections are El Greco's Famous Gyro and the Famous Greek Salad. The salad has lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, pepperoncini, olives, beets, green peppers, onion and Feta cheese. Prices for lunch entrees mostly range from about $7 to $10. Platters are a few dollars more.

Ownership: Onetime El Greco chef Robert Marini and his nephew, Eddie Yzeiri, bought the restaurant from the original owner in 2005. The restaurant opened in 1989. Yzeiri, who worked in restaurants in Detroit for 15 years, says the recession recently leveled off somewhat for El Greco, however business remains inconsistent. Fewer employees downtown, says Yzeiri, means fewer possible customers. “The body count has been less,” Yzeiri says. “And people are spending less.”

Still, Yzeiri says some days are surprisingly busy. On a recent Monday, for example, the restaurant served one table of 15 people, and another table of 30 guests during lunch.

Review date: February 2012