Boston's Gyro King

Grove Hall: that nebulous intersection that is one part Roxbury, one part Dorchester, one part suburban shopping center and one part inner city. Boston's Gyro King has planted his throne on the corner of Blue Hill Avenue and Grove Hall's Mecca. You can't miss the palace. It's gate is crowned with a blaring yellow sign with green letters flanked by two three-dimensional, plastic cones of gyro meat. At dusk, the sign glows; a beacon for the hungry.

The shop's grand opening was this past September 9th and the Gyro King is attracting some repeat business. I was there last night to test the menu, ordering the signature dish, naturally. If you're are going to call yourself the Gyro King, you'd better to be able to put your shawarma where my mouth is.

While I was waiting, a woman and her child came in and she was on her phone taking an order to deliver for takeout. The man behind the counter waved and the woman cut her conversation short. "I forgot," she said to the counterman, "You don't take debit cards do you?" He nodded NO. She said she would be right back and in fact she did return after five minutes as I was leaving.

In the meantime, however, a rather husky gent came into the shop and he read the overhead menu that wraps around two walls. "What's the chicken cheese steak?" he asked, pointing at the picture of a long sandwich. The man behind the counter said, "It's a sandwich with chicken, cheese and steak." The husky man looked at the picture a moment more. "Yeah," he said, "I'll have one of them, the chicken cheese steak. Make it the one for $5.99." The almost-six dollar model comes with french fries and a soft drink.

My order was done before I got to see the chicken cheese steak get prepared, which is probably just as well. My take home: two gyros for ten bucks, tax included. Were they good? Yes. They were as solid as bricks with pressed lamb and spices, some lettuce, tomato and onion and yogurt sauce wrapped in a light, grilled pita. Thus far, two people have made four snacky meals out of them. There is about a quarter of one left that I'll probably have as a midnight repast or for breakfast.