It isn´t the dry, sharp tongue kiss of Boutari Retsina white wine ($3.50/glass) that kicks up this piquant, sweet dish, but it doesn´t hurt. Certainly the tight-lipped mystery that surrounds the ingredients in this dish is nearly as addictive as the dish itself. Cinnamon? Definitely. Feta cheese and cream. Oh yeah. The waiter teases the curious with the suggestion that it´s a red lobster sauce. It isn´t. In an age when you can find even the Colonel´s secret recipe online and reproduce Red Lobster´s cholesterol-coma-inducing cheese biscuits, it hardly seems fair. Hellas, however, is a luxurious experience in itself. Dramatically tiled in blue and white, it faces the Anclote River´s vista of sponge boats bobbing softly against the huge sapphire sky. It is a sweet idyll wrapped in a titillating enigma.
Hellas Restaurant, 785 Dodecanese Blvd., Tarpon Springs, 727-943-2400.
This article appears in Sep 22-28, 2004.