Pickings Good for Hearty Appetites at Two Downtown Eateries

About the only trait shared by Greek cuisine and Oklahoma-style barbecue is goodness. Goodness, that is, when the folks in charge of the soup kettles and oak-fired smokers happen to know just how to use them.

Fortunately, the gastronomically savant are in charge at two downtown eateries, Mary Pappas’ venerable Athens Market, and the much newer Gellerosa Ranch Barbeque. Both places are relatively inexpensive, informal and low-key, and both offer respite at the luncheon and dinner hours.

Pappas and her restaurant have been fixtures downtown for some time. About a year ago, the Athens Market and its likable menu moved to comfortable quarters in the refurbished Senator Hotel, a small, Victorian-style office building nestled between the imposing bulks of Horton Plaza and the Meridian condominium tower.

Relatively little change resulted from the move. The menu remains a serviceable listing of mostly familiar Greek dishes, the portions continue to be enormous in something of an inverse ratio to the prices, and some patrons still prevail upon a staff member to “read” the residue left in the bottom of a cup of joltingly strong Greek coffee. (This type of fortune-telling resembles that of reading tea leaves.)

This is the place to exercise a good appetite. The cooks spoon up lavish servings of moussaka, pastitsio (a macaroni casserole), stuffed grape leaves and extra-thick lamb chops, and all meals include both soup and salad, as well as baskets of hot, crisp-crusted bread. Any spare space in the stomach can be devoted to a serving of galactobouriko, an especially nice custard encased in a bit of phyllo pastry; this very sweet and very eggy dessert tastes faintly of cloves.

An indulgent approach to seasoning gives Greek food much of its character. For example, one of the best appetizers, a plate of the homemade lokaniko sausage, gets its special savor from the inclusion of much grated orange and lemon peel. Served burning hot, the sausage slices are meant to be dipped in the accompanying tzatziki sauce, a garlic-yogurt-cucumber concoction that paradoxically cools the sausage while making it even spicier. (At this point, one may consider the hunter in the Aesop fable, who blew on his food to cool it, and on his hands to warm them.)

Given the size of the portions, ordering an appetizer does put the following meal in jeopardy, but there are several interesting choices, including the saganaki ( kaseri cheese flamed in brandy); taramosalata , or red caviar dip, and phyllo triangles filled with a choice of cheese or spinach.

A pair of hardy or at least committed diners can tour the menu most quickly by ordering the Athens Market Special, a soup-to-nuts banquet that costs $29 for two. It begins with a choice of lentil or avgolemono soups; progresses to salad (skipped on a recent visit out of the reasonable fear of being too stuffed to taste all the entrees); continues with plates bearing thick lamb chops, squares of moussaka and pastitsio, stuffed grape leaves, rice, and heaps of fresh, good green beans, and concludes with pastry.

The lentil soup was rich, savory and spicy; the avgolemono, also rich, compensated by being refreshingly flavored with lemon juice. Of the entrees, the most pleasant may have been the pastitsio, a homely but tasty concoction of macaroni baked under a custard-like crust with well-seasoned ground beef and tomatoes. The moussaka was perfectly workmanlike, but less towering than the best examples; usually, this cinnamon-scented casserole of eggplant and chopped meat is baked under an egg-enriched white sauce that rises like a souffle as it cooks.

The stuffed grape leaves were likable, but the requisite egg-lemon sauce, a delicious Greek variation on the more fattening French hollandaise, had been unpleasantly thickened with some foreign agent, most probably cornstarch. Each plate also included a thick lamb chop, pleasantly flavored with mint but cooked well-done; the waiter did not ask the doneness preference when taking the order.

Any of the above items can be ordered individually, and among other entree choices are chicken baked with lemon, oregano and olive oil; a dish of beef sirloin tips braised with onions and a dozen seasonings; roast lamb, and souvlaki, the traditional kebab of skewered lamb cubes. Entree prices run from $8.95 to $15.95.

The staff at Gellerosa Ranch Barbeque dresses in cowpoke fashion to honor the Oklahoma birthplace of its brand of cooking, but this style is rather at odds with the almost minimalist decor of gleaming white walls and scattered artworks. The two high-ceilinged rooms are airy and comfortable, and decor in any case seems a minor concern to the businessmen, lawyers and office workers who frequent them: The focus of everyone’s attention is the huge, oak-burning smoker immured in a corner of the main dining room.

The products of this massive, double-doored contraption are almost unreasonably straightforward and simple, but the apparent lack of artifice in the cooking is in itself a kind of artifice because it means that everything has to be done just so, and that the raw materials must be of the best quality.

This is another restaurant that doesn’t fool around with portions, but simply assumes that all its patrons are hungry. Meeker appetites can, however, turn to the sandwiches, of which there are five: In the barbecue category, a choice of hot link sausage, bologna, ribs or chopped beef brisket, and for non-meat-eaters, a crab-and-seafood salad combination spread between two slices of plain old white bread.

Dinner plate choices include all the above meats as well as half a chicken, and the rib choice here extends to both pork and beef. Plates include good beans (basically baked Boston-style, but attractively gussied up with chopped scallions and cayenne, and perhaps a few other things), and a choice of potato salad or cole slaw. The slaw is made on the premises and tastes like it, and makes a cooling foil to the rich, heavy and often spicy meats.

The real surprise at Gellerosa Ranch is the barbecued bologna, served in thick slices that have plenty of flavor and mate well with either the mild barbecue sauce (quite sweet, actually, and based largely on brown sugar) or the hair-raisingly hot barbecue sauce. Whenever anything here is labeled hot, the information is offered sincerely, and this sauce packs a punch. It is not to be missed.

The chopped brisket gains its quality from a subtle infusion of smoke flavor, and is remarkably tender, especially considering the lengthy cooking it undergoes. The crisp bits cut from the brisket edges are especially satisfying.

The ribs cannot be faulted, the meat so well-cooked yet tender that it lifts easily from the bone. The hot links--sausages spiced with cayenne pepper applied by someone who really likes cayenne pepper--are marvelous, as long as the diner also likes food this hot. To douse a bite of sausage with a dollop of hot barbecue sauce is to experience one of the spiciest double-whammies in the world of cooking.

Sandwiches run from $3 to $4.25, and dinner plates from $4.50 to $8.95, a price that buys a hefty combination platter that boasts four different meats. Those with room for dessert can order a slice of old-fashioned, homemade layer cake that looks to have been made in a country kitchen by someone who cares.

ATHENS MARKET

109 West F St., San Diego

234-1955

Lunch and dinner served daily.

Credit cards accepted.

GELLEROSA RANCH BARBEQUE

120 Ash St., San Diego

232-2838

Same menu served 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; until 4 p.m. Sundays.