Greek Out! Is In With Skateboard Crowd

One summer spent boating from isle to isle in the Aegean taught me a thing or two about water, twilights and sand. It also permanently etched a summer craving for Greek food into my brain, which led me to Venice Beach where an unassuming take-out place stirred gustatory memories.

Greek Out! with its spiffy Grecian blue awning and a few tables, is always occupied by the local skateboard crowd who eat cheeseburgers and gyros and drink Coke. The rest of the menu isn’t much more complicated: falafel, souvlakia, dolma, moussaka, etc. What is surprising is the high standard of these modestly priced offerings.

We built a delicious late-summer picnic out of a-little-of-this-and-that, moving from the mezedes (Greek hors d’oeuvres) to the heartier main offerings. The Greek salad is fresh and spiffy and the hummus (garbanzo and tahini spread) tastes particularly smooth. The yogurt-cucumber tzaziki is positively perky and the babaganoush , a paste of eggplant and tahini , is vibrant too. The hand-wrapped rice-stuffed grape leaves, dolma , have just the right sense of mass. Only in the weak tarama, the roe-based spread, is the balance off. It needs more caviar, less bread.

Calamari salad, which looks really good with its tender pink spikey squid and tri-color peppers, needs a bit of better vinaigrette. Spinach pie ($1.50 each) didn’t do too well on the picnic, but it was delicious and flaky one other evening when we took it home and served it hot.

Every dinner comes with salad and pita and ranges from $4.25 for the falafel to lamb souvlakia at $6.45.

Falafel, bursting with cumin, is crisp, not greasy; slices of gyros , the spit-roasted lamb and beef combination, are well-spiced and surprisingly moist. The moussaka is fine too with its two-toned deep and creamy taste. The baked chicken breast, absolutely simple and lemony, was once moist, once a bit too dry. Large boneless pieces of chicken souvlaki come in a delicious sauce. A good set of teeth is needed for lamb souvlakia.

The skateboard crowd seems to prefer the divine, dark chocolate “secret ingredient” brownies to the honey-soaked restaurant version kataifi and baklava. Very light and buttery kourabides are another good dessert choice. I hope Greek Out! will get around to making the creamy galactobouriko that’s listed on their menu. Maybe after the summer crowds go home?

Greek Out!, 46 Windward Ave., Venice. (213) 392-4879. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Credit cards and checks not accepted. Street parking.