During an extended weekend visit to Chicago this past week, we spent a few hours in the city’s Greek neighborhood in the West Loop (easily reached from downtown via the Blue Line El train). We’ve visited several times in the past, but on this trip we took the time to explore a few new places in this friendly neighborhood.

First, we took in the exhibits at the National Hellenic Museum, dedicated in 2011 in a stunning, eco-friendly contemporary glass and marble building. A gift shop, exhibits, function space, research facilities and a rooftop terrace offering great views of the Chicago skyline spread over four floors. We scanned the exhibits easily in the course of about two hours, examining traditional costumes and artifacts from the various waves of immigration to all parts of the United States. I learned for the first time of the involvement of Greeks in the Abolitionist and Civil Rights movements and labor organization in the early 20th century. We also spent time reading and listening to some of the stories in the museum’s Oral History Center, deciding that we need to encourage my husband’s mother to record her recollections as a child of Greek immigrants in the 1920s.

Next, we stopped in at a favorite bakery just across the street from the museum. The Pan Hellenic Pastry Shop is a family-run operation that offers a host of genuine Greek pastries as well as more mainstream dessert items, coffee and bread. After choosing an assortment of goodies to take home with us, we headed on to dinner. On the way, we passed another, newer bakery/café/market, Artopolis (“city of bread”). This more expansive establishment than its older neighbor offers a fairly generous menu of salads, sandwiches and desserts as well as shelves offering everything from olive oil to imported trinkets. We decided we had to share a plate of loukoumades, a light puff of deep-fried dough served warm in a honey syrup and sprinkled with cinnamon. Not your typical dinner appetizer, but very satisfying!

At last we arrived at Santorini, a new-to-us restaurant (though established more than 20 years ago) with a traditional dining room of whitewashed walls and dark beams, strewn with items that mirrored some of the museum exhibits we’d seen earlier. We were seated at a table directly in front of the wood-burning fireplace, which offered just the right amount of warmth on this cool evening. We shared traditional starters of tsatziki (yogurt/cucumber/garlic dip) with house-baked bread, deep-fried calamari and saganaki (flaming cheese; really, unless eaten quickly while it’s hot, not much more appetizing — or tender — than shoe leather). Each of us ordered our own entrées: a couple of lamb dishes (rich and tender), meatballs, pastichio and pike. (I definitely wanted to try their specialty, seafood, and found it delicious and perfectly prepared.) Too full for dessert (and, really, we’d indulged in ours before dinner), we left with satisfied palates and tummies, deciding that we would be happy to return again and sample that menu.

If you’re visiting Chicago, I would encourage you to find time for a visit to Greektown and sample its many pleasures.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor