By Nancy Brumback, Contributing Writer
West Boylston – The Fotiadis family is celebrating its heritage with monthly Greek Nights at The Manor Restaurant, starting Friday, Sept. 2, from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Christos Berdos, a Greek singer, will headline the show of traditional songs and dances.
“And I'sl be in the house to help with some Greek 101 lessons,” Katerina Fotiadis-Rajotte, who owns the restaurant with her brothers, Savvas and Antonios Fotiadis, said with a laugh.
Along with the Greek nights, the Manor is introducing theme night specials each day of the week. At the moment, the themes are Tuesday's all you can eat barbecue dinner; Wednesday's $3 off on a prime rib dinner; Thursday's “buy an appetizer, get a second for half price”; and Sunday's classic specials. On Friday and Saturday nights, the Manor's special is twin lobsters plus steamers for only $18.99.
Customers can check the restaurant's Facebook page for theme night changes and updates on the newest menu items and specials, Katerina said.
The siblings have been working together in the restaurant business for over 25 years, first at Dean Park Pizza in Shrewsbury, and then at the Manor, which they bought about 14 years ago. They recently opened a second restaurant, the Grill on the Hill, at Worcester's Green Hill municipal golf course.
“We invite people who haven's been here in a while to come and see what we have done,” Savvas said. “The Manor is not what it was 10 years ago. And customers who used to come to Dean Park should know we are the same family, and it's not far for them to come from Shrewsbury.”
The restaurant is located on Route 12 in West Boylston, just up the street from Wal-Mart.
The Manor's Pub 42 room is open for lunch every day except Mondays, with a wide selection of sandwiches, wraps and paninis, plus salads, soups and flatbread pizzas. All, even the pizzas, can be ordered gluten-free. The pizzas are $7.99, and sandwiches are $6.99 to $9.99, including such specialties as Greek gyros made with beef or chicken; scallop, clam or lobster rolls; chicken paninis and hot, open-faced sandwiches. The day's lunch specials are $5.99.
At dinnertime, the casually elegant dining room, with large windows, crisp white tablecloths and a fireplace at one end, offers diners their choice of American, Greek or Italian specialties, with many entrees under $15 and none over $20.
The appetizer menu alone reads like an international guidebook, with stuffed grape leaves, lollipop lamb chops, Mexican potato skins, clams aglio e olio, nachos, calamari and a Greek sampler plate.
The Greek specialties include moussaka, spanakopita, Greek shrimp and roast lamb. If you'se in the mood for Italian, you'sl find all your favorites, from lasagna to veal parmigiana to lobster ravioli to seafood cioppino. Or there are steaks, baby back ribs, over a dozen seafood choices, including baked haddock – a customer favorite, and chicken eight different ways.
“Cooking our barbecue is a two-day process,” Savvas said, “and our seafood comes in fresh every day.”
When the Fotiadis family bought the Manor, it was primarily a function hall with a small restaurant.
“We turned it into a restaurant with a small function room,” he said, and then the family added a wing with larger function rooms for weddings and meetings. This wing includes one room that can accommodate 160 guests and another that can handle 240, or the two rooms can be combined for a party of 400. A permanent dance floor spans both rooms.
The space includes a private dressing area for the bridal party, and there's a boardroom with conference table and audio-video capacity for smaller corporate meetings.
The Manor is located at 42 West Boylston St. (Rt. 12) in West Boylston. For more information or for reservations, call 508-835-4722 or see the website www.ourmanor.com. The Pub opens for lunch at 11:30 a.m., and the dining room opens for dinner at 4 p.m. Sunday hours are 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., and the restaurant is closed on Mondays.
