#1 Gyro is My Favorite!

By PAUL WHEATON

Many years ago a bunch of guys I worked with suggested we go out for lunch. They decided we should go to the Acropolis. I had never had greek food before.

I had a gyro, greek fries and a cherry coke. It was so good I had another gyro.

I went back there for dinner and had the same thing. Soooo good.

I ate the same thing every lunch and dinner for two weeks. And then I moved so I could be closer to the restaurant. I ate there so often that the owner (Eva – very Greek) would give me free baklava.

Soooo good.

And then I moved out of state.

And then I came back. Within hours of getting into town, I was at the Acropolis.

Different owners. It just doesn’t seem the same. The gyros are pretty good – the greek fries are …. different. Most of the time I go there, it seems they have some college kids running the joint.

Ambrosia is pretty good. About on par with Acropolis.

But! #1 Gyro is my new favorite! Their gyros and greek fries are excellent! And they easily have the best spanakopita.

I recently needed to find buckets for a project and I asked all three restaurants for buckets. Some restaurants get certain kinds of foods in buckets. When the food is gone, they have spare buckets. Ambrosia sells theirs for $3.50. Acropolis sells their for $2.50, but they gave me two for free anyway. And #1 gave me two for free with never a mention of any price. And as I’ve gone back several times, they have given me several more buckets.

I feel a deep loyalty to the Acropolis – a lot of really good memories there. And yet my taste buds seem to always steer me to #1.

So I stopped in at #1 a few weeks ago, orderd some food, reached for my wallet and … what the … oh no …. The guy says “forgot your wallet?” “yeah, let me go out to my rig, and … ” “don’t sweat it. I’ll just put the bill up here” and he put the slip on a shelf, ”pay it the next time you come in.” And then went about getting me set up for food. Wow.

As I think about it, this is something where it is so great to be back in Missoula. The people on the other side of the counter really like their job. They’re having fun. Not just in restaurants, but in nearly all businesses. Even the other patrons are glad to be there and be chatty.

I remember being freshly back into Missoula and at the hardware store in Trempers (at not-malfunction-junction). During the few minutes I was in the store, three people I didn’t know chatted with me a short bit.

And of all this good community awesomeness, one tiny little gyro shop went even further. So a few days later, I went to pay my bill. And I brought my camera and had a bit of my own kind of fun:

That’s my friend Geoff Badenoch modeling gyros for the camera.

I feel a bit awkward that I’m not sharing some new permaculture idea, but this was big enough that I just had to share. As mentioned in the video, please feel free to come to my site and talk in the Missoula forum where a bunch of us have already been talking about Missoula’s Greek restaurants and other Missoula restaurants.

I’m gonna be presenting on “Introduction to Permaculture” at 6:30 at the library this Thursday.  I hope to see you there!  You can find out about all of my upcoming Missoula presentations at http://www.permies.com/permaculture/missoula.

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BIO: Paul Wheaton is is the tyrannical ruler of two on-line communities. One is about permaculture and one is about software engineering. There is even one for Missoula. Paul has written several permacutlure articles starting with one on lawn care that he presented at the MUD Project 17 years ago, including articles on raising chickens, cast iron and diatomaceous earth. Paul also regularly uploads permaculture videos and permaculture podcasts. In his spare time, Paul has plans for world domination and is currently shopping for a hollowed out volcano in the Missoula area, with good submarine access.

See all of Paul’s contributions to MakeitMissoula on this Blog Homepage here