(New York City, Midtown)
The area by Madison Square Garden was never posh, and the restaurants were never great, but there was this place that was famous for their Gyros and Souvlakis and, for years, decades actually, everyone went there. After a concert or sporting event this place would have half-hour lines while all the other eateries were ignored or only had the starving hordes go there.
For those unfamiliar with these sandwiches souvlakis and gyros are basically the same thing except for the meat. Gyros are slices of lamb that are cut from a rotisserie; souvlakis are cubes of lamb that are skewered and placed on a grill. Both gyros and souvlakis, are served on a pita (nicely greased) with lettuce, tomato, onion, a bit of feta and olives (pitted of course) and then slobbered over with "white sauce." People from Greece and the rest of the eastern Mediterranean may not use the same names, or there may be other differences, but that was how it was served in NY "Greek restaurants."
A few years ago the place shut down, the area was changing, becoming more gentrified and they were unable to pay the new rent. I took a photo of this sign in the window showing the recipe for their white sauce. I just found it on my phone.
Reading the recipe it doesn't sound very good. It doesn't seem "right." But it was delicious.
