Greek Village Inn Dinner and Wine Pairing featuring Star Olive Oil

A tasting of the Star California Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Garlic Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

Thursday night I was invited to a dinner at the Greek Village Inn  for a dinner created with Star Olive Oil. Star has come out with a California olive oil made from olives grown entirely in California.  Greek Village Inn used this and other Star brand olive oils to create a fantastic dinner with wines from Sean Minor and a few Greek wines.  Now I was told this was a tasting and that's what I was expecting but this was a whole complete dinner from appetizers to desert.  We started out with appetizers:

Grilled Artichoke rubbed with Star Garlic extra virgin olive oil, and served with Star capers in a lemon thyme remoulade.  This was paired with the Sean Minor 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon.  A whole artichoke! Delicious but had to take half of it home.

This is followed by a Spicy imported Dodonis Greek feta dip with Star garlic extra virgin olive oil and served with grilled pita bread. This was a serving for 4 people.This was my absolute favorite.  I'd go back just for this dip. The wine was a Phtinithe  Nobilis, Restina.  This was a particularly interesting white wine made from pine.  It had a very distinct piney resin flavor to it..an acquired taste.

Next was the imported Kefalograviera cheese Saganaki sauteed in Star California extra virgin olive oil, flambed table side This was for 4 people.  Served with a Santorini Hatziyiannis.

Salad course was the traditional Horiatiki Salata or Greek Salad with heirloom tomatoes and imported Dodonis Feta Cheese, Kalamata olives tossed with the Star Extra Virgin Olive Oil.  Served with Sean Minor  Chardonay.  This  was a good sized salad and so good but I had to have them box up most of it to take home.

The main course was a New Zealand Roasted Lamb Shank basted with Star California EVOO  and Olive oil roasted lemon potatoes. This was paired with the Sean Minor Merlot.  Lamb is my favorite, this was perfect..but again I was so full that I just took a couple of bite of the lamb and the potatoes, which by the way were so good that if I wasn't so full I would have eaten them all.  Again this was boxed.

Dessert, after all that!  It was a nice light dessert.. Grilled fresh fruit marinated in Star California EVOO and Brandy, served in a meringue cup.  This was served with Ouzo.  I'm not a fan of black licorice, but Ouzo is delicious and was a great way to end the meal.

This was an absolutely wonderful dinner. Greek Village Inn did an outstanding job in creating the dishes using Star olive oils.  Plus we got a little gift box of miniature olive oils and balsamic vinegar from Star.

Greek Village Inn
65 University Ave
916 922-6334