Ever since I moved to NYC, I always feel like I'm the only Manhattanite that gets stuck in town on 3-day weekends. In the winter, it's the ski slopes and in the summer, everyone flees to the Hamptons. While not as dramatic of a comparison, these situations remind me of Christian holidays during my college years in Lubbock, Texas, when everyone would vacate in masses to celebrate with their families at home. I was the lone Jew stuck in a desolate city with an eerie "cowboy ghost-town" feel.

I was elated to learn that Emily, one of my BFF's, would be staying in town during President's Day weekend. We made plans to meet for dinner on Saturday night at Ethos, one of my favorite Greek's in the city. Since Em had a mani/pedi appointment at 6:15 p.m., we decided to meet at Ethos at 8:00 p.m. (not gonna lie...8 p.m. is uber late for me! Sometimes I feel like an 80 year-old woman stuck in a young gal's body...I'm a sucker for dinner at 6 p.m. and bed-time at 10 p.m.).

After what seemed like days between lunch and the time that I needed to leave my apartment en route to Ethos, Emily and I arrived at the restaurant simultaneously. From the street, Ethos stands out with its floor-to-ceiling "garage door" windows (which are able to open in nice weather for dining al fresco), bright royal blue awning, and gorgeous signage set on a bed of river rocks. Once inside of the restaurant, the space is modernly updated, vibrant and lively. The color palate is warm with tones of terracotta and gold and patches of charming exposed-brick wall. Perhaps my favorite aspect of the decor is the large fresh fish display perched on mountains of snowy-white ice, which reassures me that the seafood is at its peak.

For a 3-day weekend, Ethos was almost at capacity with patrons. Once Em and I were seated, a bowl of freshly grilled pita and a couple of random slices of crusty white and olive bread arrived. We were each handed dinner menus and a wine list and were almost too busy catching up to extensively peruse all of the delicious options. After receiving my glass of Greek red, Em and I were ready to place our food orders. To start, we chose to split tzaziki (Greek yogurt dip) and a Greek salad. I ordered the lemon-grilled shrimp and string beans for my entree, and Em went with the half-chicken and string beans.

Roughly fifteen minutes later, our tzaziki dip and Greek salad arrived. Served on a dinner plate was a generous "ice-cream scoop" mound of tzaziki, garnished with perfectly shaved radishes. The paper-white Greek yogurt was laced with chopped cucumbers, minced garlic, salt, pepper and dill. After scooping up a hefty glop of dip on to a pita triangle, my first bite of the appetizer was divine. The buttery, salty and crispy pita bread gave way to the delicately chilled tzaziki, full of flavor and texture. The creamy yogurt and soothing chopped cucumber took a back seat to the sharp spice of the fresh garlic and black pepper, thus making this traditionally subtle dip quite exciting. After nearly filling up on pita and dip, I was ready to dig in to the Greek salad. Perched atop a light blanket of chopped Romaine leaves were tomatoes, purple onions, whole kalamata olives, fresh oregano and thick cubes of feta drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. This was your standard, delicious high-quality Greek salad.

Once Em and I had nearly licked our appetizer plates clean, the dishes were removed and our entrees arrived ten-minutes later. At least six ginourmous butterflied shrimp shared my plate with perfectly stewed green beans. Each juicy shrimp was pristinely grilled over an open-flame, and then butterflied with tail-on. The succulent meat was as juicy as shrimp could be. The subtle lemon marinade was truly accentuated by the seasoned grill, making it hard for me not to finish every last bite. Ethos makes my favorite green beans in the world, and I don't feel as guilty about eating them as I would about eating a side of rice or potatoes. For all I know, the greens may be prepared using canned beans, as their texture is soft and velvety and their coloring is dull. They're cooked with crushed tomatoes, garlic, salt and have a kick of spice, which I assume comes from fresh black pepper. However they're cooked and prepared and regardless of whether they come from a can or straight from the farmer's market, I'm a huge fan of the final product.

After a delicious meal, Em and I ordered dessert. I can't tell you what it's called, and I don't see it on the restaurant's online menu, but I'll do my best to describe it. Imagine a burrito made of crispy phyllo dough, stuffed with a sweet and creamy cheesecake-like filling, then soaked in honey and topped with a couple dashes of cinnamon. Is your mouth watering yet? Despite being as full as stuffed sausages, Em and I had no problem finishing this truly amazing sweet treat.

For a wonderful Greek meal served in a casual and lively atmosphere, look no further than Ethos. Both your stomach and wallet will thank you.

Ask any of my sorority sisters how stellar of a member I was during those four hellatious years of college, and they'll probably laugh out loud. After getting called in to the sorority's honor council for getting busted smoking cigarettes in my Greek "letters," I knew that this whole thing truly wasn't for me. I hid behind a fake saccharin smile and gritted my teeth through "rush," but deep inside I was hating every minute of it. Who knows, maybe it was because I went to school in Texas and Greek life is much more intense in the South, but I was as happy as pie when I officially became an alumni and got the "hell outta' Dodge."

When I moved to New York, one of my best friends from college dragged me to a sorority alumnae association event. I figured, "Why the heck not?" I was new to town and pretty curious about what to expect from an alum event held in Yankee territory. I ended up having a fantastic time and met great girls from schools all over the country. After joining the association and getting much more involved than I ever was in college, I'm glad to report that my experience with the sorority in NYC has been nothing but positive.

For Restaurant Week, I volunteered to organize a small dinner for alum members wishing to participate. I chose Periyali because: Why should a group of former university "Greeks" go to any other type of restaurant? I was happy to see that four girls had RSVP'd for dinner on Thursday at 7:00 p.m.

I arrived at Periyali just ten minutes shy of our 7:00 p.m. reservation, and in true Lunch Belle fashion, decided to grab a drink at the bar and analyze my surroundings. After advising the hostess of my arrival, I ordered a glass of Sancerre. Periyali is housed just a couple of steps below ground level, or, halfway between ground and basement level. The space is quite large and has many dining nooks, one in particular with a grand and gorgeous skylight. The white exposed-brick walls contrasted beautifully with the dark hardwood flooring while dim lighting illumed the entire restaurant.

Five-minutes later, I was approached by the manager and asked if I'd like to sit at my table...Without my "complete" party! I happily agreed and was led away. The other four girls began to trickle in and by 7:15 p.m., we were all seated together.
After introducing everyone to eachother and briefly chatting, our waiter handed us both the regular dinner and Restaurant Week menus. It didn't take more than five minutes for the table to agree that the Restaurant Week menu was the way to go! For $35.00, you get a three-course meal...Quite the steal in NYC! I decided to start with the Greek salad, order the tilapia for my entree and finish the meal with a piece of "Greek" cake (whatever that means?).

Our appetizers simultaneously arrived with an ample basket filled with fresh crusty bread and grassy olive oil. My Greek salad came with everything but the lettuce, which couldn't have been more perfect, as I think that greens mainly serve as colorful "filler" getting in the way of the real ingredients. Bright red tomato wedges, thick slices of cucumber, ripe kalamata olives, crunchy sliced purple onions and salty feta cheese were delicately tossed with fresh black pepper, oregano, ripe capers, olive oil and vinegar. As you'll see in the picture further down the page, this plate was gorgeous...And it tasted even better. How often do the words "healthy" and "delicious" appear in the same sentence? Rarely. Whitney, who sat next to me, urged me to try her grilled octopus appetizer, which embarrassingly enough, is one sea delicacy I've never eaten before. Looking at those tentacles and creepy slimy body really freaked me out, but I gave in and took a bite. The white flesh was firm and almost tasteless, making me assume that my multi-legged friend had just been caught. The meat was grilled with olive oil and a splash of tangy lemon; truly fantastic!

Fifteen minutes after our appetizer plates were cleared, our entrees arrived. Another beautiful dish! My generous tilapia filet greedily took half of the plate, forcefully sharing the other portion with a rice and spinach concoction. The fish was perfectly scored with grill markings and sat in a shallow bath of buttery-lemon roux. The exterior of the filet was lightly crisp from the grill, yet moist from the zesty sauce giving way to a flaky and delicate interior. The accompanying rice must have been boiled in chicken stock, as it was full of a rich and salty flavor. Laced throughout were bits of spinach adding more of an interesting flavor and texture.

If I'm not mistaken, there was only one option for dessert on Periyali's Restaurant Week menu, which was some sort of Greek cake. When dessert arrived, it looked vaguely similar to piece of gingerbread, but after one bite, the cake tasted like dried-out banana bread that had been lightly soaked in honey (in hopes of regaining any sort of moisture). Yawn! Why didn't they have some sort of fabulous baklava or something? Boo!

My meal at Periyali was wonderful and the only thing that would have made me happier would have been a dessert that was just as amazing as my other dishes...And my fellow "Greeks" concurred! Funny enough, this evening divulged the fact that our entire table had gone to school in Texas! All this talk about those days made me realize that there may be no place like home, but there's certainly NO OTHER place for me than New York.

Amidst the gritty, yet adorably charming block of 7th Street between 1st Avenue & Avenue A, stands a Greek oasis named Pylos. This restaurant is so easy to walk by and not notice, as I almost did, myself. My boyfriend and I had plans to meet there for dinner at 7:45 p.m. on Friday night. As I looked around the block for some sort of signage, I was becoming angry, thinking he had mistaken the address. Before I could utter another cuss word, there it was!

Upon entering Pylos, you immediately feel transported to the Greek Isles (that sounds super cheesy, but it's true). The entire ceiling is covered with clay pitchers; the walls are stark white with royal blue accents and the atmosphere is clean, modern and warm.We were seated immediately, but told that the next reservation for our table was at 9:30 p.m., so we had until then to eat our meal; not a problem, considering it was only 7:45 p.m.

The complimentary homemade pita and chickpea dip was out-of-this-world! The pita bread was crisp and buttery on the outside and almost doughy on the inside. We started with the homemade sausage with tomato sauce, which was so tender and fresh and the tomato sauce added the perfect amount of tang. My boyfriend ordered the duck and I ordered the shrimp and scallops over pasta with a lightly creamy tomato sauce. We couldn't have been happier!

This was one of the best meals I've had lately, from start to finish. The service, ambiance and food were excellent.