Lola

Jackie's grandmother, Lola, was a formidable woman, close to six feet tall, lanky and verbose, showing her Kentucky holler roots through a southern twang. In the fall of 1929, Lola's brother, a station manager on the dusty rails of eastern Washington, told his parents about his single colleague named Louis Kakaris. An "old maid" at the age of 20, Lola's parents quickly sent her on the train to meet this Louie and they married that afternoon. With a thick Greek accent, Louie's stories of his Greek heritage and immigrant journey to America as a 17-year-old were fascinating to me. A return visit to his homeland was always dreamt of, but never realized. We always thought about what Louie would eat upon his inaugural return to Greece 50 years later, and even wrote a chapter in my book Tom's Big Dinners called "Grandpa Louie's Dream Greek Vacation Dinner" to honor this thought. That chapter turned into this restaurant you are seeing right now. With our menu, we celebrate Louie's Greek spirit and Lola's feistiness. You can find photos of them both on the walls behind Pope's table.