Poppi’s Anatolia
992 Willamette Street
Eugene, OR 97401-3134
(541) 343-9661

Poppi’s Anatolia’s website’s

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Yet another hippie-vibe restaurant for me to crush. But wait! What is this I see?! Clean tables, quality materials, well-decorated, table service, a first-rate menu with dishes suitable for adults with no fear of fragrant spices?! The other hippie places in town are going to be pissed when they see this travesty of hippie-dom. What a big disappointment…

Yes, we are gathered here today to sadly report that someone has executed a hippie-vibe restaurant without all of the normal, nearly mandatory, gaffes usually associated with these places. To refresh your memory, here is my universally praised and revered list:

List of Required Features that Funky, Original, Quirky Restaurants Must Have

1. Goofy name
2. Sketchy location in “up and coming” neighborhood
3. Funky paint scheme
4. Worn-out furniture. No booth seating.
5. Dreadlocked white kids working the counter and/or the kitchen
6. Difficult to understand menus
7. Vegan this, veggie that
8. Quirky drink brands
9. Lots of hand-written signs strewn about the place
10. Bus your own table
11. Slightly dirty, grimy film of hippie-ness over everything

And here are the disappointing results for Poppi’s Anatolia:

1. Goofy name
-OK, at least they hit this nail on the head. By the way, can anyone tell me how to write the possessive form of Poppi’s Anatolia? Is it Poppi’s Anatolia’s? That looks strange.

2. Sketchy location in “up and coming” neighborhood
-Near miss. It’s downtown, so it’s not quite down, but it’s also not quite “up and coming”.

3. Funky paint scheme
-Total miss. This place is tastefully decorated in a wood theme with beautiful exposed wood rafters and walls. Hippie-ish wall hangings are actually displayed in frames and stretched properly to make them look good. Pffft…Any self-respecting hippie would know that these should be loosely hung on the wall with thumbtacks.

4. Worn-out furniture. No booth seating.
-OK, they correctly left out the comfortable booth seating, but the other tables and chairs are all nice wood and matching. They should find a few other nice quality restaurants and swap some tables and chairs with them so everything would look more funky and jumbled and unattractive. Yeah, that would be good.

5. Dreadlocked white kids working the counter and/or the kitchen
-None spotted. Bummer.

6. Difficult to understand menus
-Actually, Poppi’s Anatolias’s menu’s are’s fairly understandable, even given the bizarre Indian/Greek range of food choices. (Owner grew up in Africa but was of Greek heritage and later moved to London…I think…or maybe not.)

7. Vegan this, veggie that
-Some choices, but it’s definitely not an overriding holier-than-thou theme. Too bad.

8. Quirky drink brands
-Not many quirky drink brands. Just coffee, tea, fruit juice, mineral water, beer, and wine. Where are the pomegranate pumpernickel smoothies?!

9. Lots of hand-written signs strewn about the place
-Aside from a specials sign near the door, this place is distinctly lacking in handwritten felt-tip pen signs.

10. Bus your own table
-Annoyingly, Poppi’s actually has friendly and polite table service here. They take your order, bring your food, and then clear your table for you at the end of the meal…like some sort of Robo-cop automatons controlled by The Man.

11. Slightly dirty, grimy film of hippie-ness over everything
-Big miss on this one. Poppi’s is very clean and tidy, dare I say, slightly classy casual.

Additional important point: Whereas a proper hippie-vibe restaurant focuses on bland food that college kids typically make at home with tortillas, sawdust, and flax chaff, Poppi’s goes totally in the wrong direction, i.e. they serve a variety of flavorful (some spicy, some not) dishes with various world influences. Some examples from their menu:

Dolmadakia, Stuffed grape leaves with rice, currants and pine nuts
Taramosalata, Smoked fish roe, whipped with potato and onion, served with Greek bread
Potato and Onion Bhajias, Spicy garbanzo flour fritters
Anginarakia, Baby artichokes marinated with garlic and thyme
Kotta Fillets of roasted chicken
Spanakopitta, Traditional spinach, feta cheese and fillo pastry pie
Egyptian Moussaka Stew
Vindaloo Chicken
Bindi Bhaji, Okra in spices and tomato
Sag Bhaji Spinach
Halibut Psito, Marinated grilled halibut steak
etc…

Summary: Worst execution of a grungy hippie-vibe restaurant in Eugene. Great place to eat in a nice setting run by a professional restaurant owner with actual cooking skills.

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