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Welcome to the Q’Stoner food feature, Signature Dish! Once a week we check in with Queens restaurants and ask the owners about the all-time favorite dishes they serve. If you know of a dish you’d like to see featured here, please email emily@brownstoner.com.

The Spot: Zenon Taverna, 34-10 31st Avenue, Astoria.

The Deal: The Greek restaurant Zenon Taverna, located in the heart of Astoria, has been under the management of the same family since 1988. Stelios Papageorgiou trained as a chef in his native Cyprus and, after immigrating, wanted to serve “the food from his mother country to Astoria,” says his daughter and one of the managers, Elena Papageorgiou. “We strive to transport our customers to a taverna in Cyprus, for them to experience and enjoy it as if they were there.”

After 26 years, additional family members have stepped in to help in various roles from serving to managing to cooking, but Stelios is still active in the running of the restaurant. “He does all the ordering himself and goes to the markets to pick out things like our seafood,” Elena explains. “My father has tried to keep our prices as low as possible while still keeping the best quality.”

When customers need more than just a meal, Zenon Taverna also has a banquet room and offers catering services. Also be sure to follow the restaurant’s Facebook and Twitter accounts for rotating specials. Be sure to bring cash though; another traditional aspect of this taverna is that they don’t accept credit cards.

The Dish: For an authentic Cyprus dish, stop by Zenon Taverna on a Thursday or Sunday to try the Kleftico, a lamb entrée served with potatoes, celery, carrots, onions, herbs, and spices. “The folk story, as my father knows it, says Kleftico got its name from the word kleftes, which is Greek for robbers,” says Elena. “Robbers would steal lamb from farmers, and go somewhere far from the village to cook it so they wouldn’t be seen. They would dig a hole in the ground, skin, and cut up the meat. In this hole they would put firewood and start up some fire. They would put the meat and seasoning back into the lamb skin, and seal it tightly. They would then put the lamb in the hole, and cover it with dirt for the lamb to roast. They would return the next day to feast upon it.”

The taverna’s modern version eschews the robbery and dirt hole for wax paper and aluminum foil although the cooking concept remains the same: Keep the meat tightly sealed and allow it to cook in its own juice for many hours. Each serving is wrapped separately to keep the juice from escaping. Come early to try this dish because quantities are limited.

Elena says, “Although the recipe is a traditional one, in Cyprus, my father never put the vegetables (carrots, celery, onion); this was something he added when making it here at the restaurant.”


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