Stories from Kefalonia ……..back with Magic on the hill

Yesterday in Kefalonia the weather had been hot and sunny all day and still at eight in the evening it was a pleasant 28° which can be a little sticky.

But high on the hill overlooking Lourdas Bay the air was sweeter and the views dramatic as the sun set over the sea.

Added to which the promise of fine food and some good wines offered another night to be remembered, because this is where Lorraine’s Magic Hill restaurant is situated.*

It celebrates a quarter of a century this year and we can claim to have been coming for seven of those years.

I say seven but if I am honest it’s just six, given that this year I have had to stay behind, leaving Tina and her mum to spend the week under a Greek sun and more importantly dine at the restaurant on the hill.

And I am the loser because eating at Lorraine’s is magic

It starts with the location with its fine views down across the bay and out to sea, made even better by the climb up a series of twisty steps taking you away from the noise and heat of the resort through a collection of trees and fragrant flowers to the restaurant. 

The food is a variation on traditional Greek, but with the added magic of Lorraine’s imaginative style of cooking, who greets all her customers with a description of the specials for the night.

And here Lorraine doesn’t just reel off the titles of the dishes but goes into great detail from what inspired the dish to the combination of ingredients, many of which are sourced from the family farm, and is adamant that when a locally produced ingredient is no longer available the dish is off the menu.

Talking to Lorraine this morning she told me that  she was “just doing a vegan vegetarian pie, along with a vegan almond milk based cream, with cinnamon soaked apples in cognac for a dessert as well as vegan oats milk chocolate pudding tops with raspberries preserve”.

All three I have had in the past and I am indeed the loser for being in Manchester and not there.

But Tina and her mum had a grand time dining out on kalamata, fava beans with lemon and herbs and feta in filo with honey and sesame for starters followed by fish and lamb and while they wanted to swerve the puddings  Tina tells me Lorraine generously " arrived with two puddings and the cinnamon drink you like".

Lorraine’s own story helps explain her passion for food.  

She comes from the USA, made her home in Greece, and with her husband and now her children she has worked at offering up Greek food with the Lorraine twist.

During the course of the morning Loriane continued to update me on the pie, with a delightful video of the pastry case going on the pie and the finished dish.

Many who fall across Lorraine’s Magic Hill, go back again and again, like Sid and Sadie from Sale who have returned each year since 1992.  

I call them Sid and Sadie, but we never actually exchanged names, having spent the conversation swopping tales of the food we have eaten.

And that really is how it should be.

Leaving me to return to Lorraine's with more stories, the pictures of the pie and puddings she made today.**

Location; Lourdas Bay

Pictures; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, 2018 and 2022, from the collection of Balzano.

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesrestaurant.gr/

**Stories from Lorraine’s Magic Hill https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Lorraine%E2%80%99s%20Magic%20Hill

Just how do you serve up a drink on Kefalonia? ..... no. 2

A short occasional series featuring a picture and a memory.

It began as a competition to record as many different glasses at one restaurant as we could over the pace of three days.

We had arrived early, and so choose to have an aperitif in the bar, and both went for an apple spritz.

Location; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Picture; glass jar, 2019, from the collection of Balzano


Lorraine’s Magic Hill

Just how do you serve up a drink on Kefalonia?………. no. 1

A short occasional series featuring a picture and a memory.

It began as a competition to record as many different glasses at one restaurant as we could over the pace of three days.

But today it was the jam jar which took pride of place.

Tina liked the jam jar and it reminded me of a similar jar, in a taverna at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens.

It was a full forty-one years ago, and while I have long ago forgotten what we ate, I can remember the ice cold Retsina which was served up in the glass jug.

Location; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Picture; glass jar, 2019, from the collection of Balzano

The Magic on the hill ……..

Now, if I had to nominate one place which combines memorable food, good service and stunning views it would have to be Lorraine’s Magic Hill, a restaurant on Kefalonia which we just keep going back to.*

This year was our sixth on the island, and of the countless Greek restaurants over the last four decades, Lorraine’s is in indeed “magic”.

It starts with the location with its fine views down across the bay and out to sea, made even better by the climb up a series of twisty steps taking you away from the noise and heat of the resort through a collection of trees and fragrant flowers to the restaurant. 

The food is a variation on traditional Greek, but with the added magic of Lorraine’s imaginative style of cooking, who greets all her customers with a description of the specials for the night.

And here Lorraine doesn’t just reel off the titles of the dishes but goes into great detail from what inspired the dish to the combination of ingredients, many of which are sourced from the family farm, and is adamant that when a locally produced ingredient is no longer available the dish is off the menu.

So, last week for those looking for “the Lamb chops topped with lemon, olive oil and oregano, served with oven roasted potatoes and fresh vegetables” they were directed instead to “Chicken Robola”, the Sea Bream or "Gemista", because the only available lamb was from New Zealand and New Zealand lamb ain’t Greek.

As a vegetarian I am always impressed that one of the specials is veggie with a vegan alternative.

And so, on one of our visits last week I swooned over the feta mouse starter, and on another evening was made very happy by the vegan custard pudding. 

Lorraine’s own story helps explain her passion for food.  

She comes from the USA, made her home in Greece, and with her husband and now her children she has worked at offering up Greek food with the Lorraine twist.

At which point I could go off and describe the meals we have eaten, but where would the fun be in that, when the pleasure comes from going there and enjoying it yourself?

All of which just leaves me to say there are plenty of stories on the blog about our visits.** 

And each includes a link to the restaurant which offers up heaps of pictures from happy customers to the food, as well as the menu.

Many who fall across Lorraine’s Magic Hill, go back again and again, like Sid and Sadie from Sale who have returned each year since 1992.  

I call them Sid and Sadie, but we never actually exchanged names, having spent the conversation swopping tales of the food we have eaten.

And that really is how it should be.

Location; Lourdas Bay

Pictures; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, 2018 and 2022, from the collection of Balzano.

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesrestaurant.gr/

**Stories from Lorraine’s Magic Hill https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Lorraine%E2%80%99s%20Magic%20Hill

Evenings at the Magic Hill ………

Lorraine’s Magic Hill is a restaurant set high up above the small Greek holiday resort of Lourdas.

That marks it out from the selection of tavernas and bars which stretch along the beach road.

Not that there is anything wrong with these eating places which offer up pretty much what the tourist thinks is traditional Greek food. 

But Lorraine’s restaurant is different, partly because of that commanding view out to sea and across to the island of Zakynthos and because of the food which is a mix of “fine Mediterranean and Modern Greek Cuisine, [with] "a menu carefully balanced with seafood, meat dishes, traditional specialties, pastas and salads – plus mouthwatering desserts”.  And “a select wine list containing well-known Kefalonian wines and noted wines of Greece”*.

It is not just a meal but an experience, and begins with Lorraine herself, who greets each group of diners, and takes them through the menu along with “the specials” which are prepared that day and inspired by what has just come out of the ground from their own garden.

And all the food is seasonal and locally sourced, so on our first visit back this year, the lamb had been taken off the menu, because the supply of local Greek lambs was no longer available.

It is evident from Lorraine’s presentation that she has not lost any of her enthusiasm or love for what she does, and her descriptions of how the specials are cooked is matched by her interest in her customers.  

All of which leads to both an insight into her story as well as questions about where we came from, what we did and how long we were staying.

And here I confess we are devoted fans of Lorraine’s Magic Hill, having first visited the restaurant back in 2019, and in the course of the holiday went back three more times, and was moved to write a piece for the blog.**

This year we were back, and back again, and were not disappointed at what is a family run business.

Tina and her mum fell on the fish dishes, and I was more than happy with the vegetarian alternatives, and those “mouthwatering desserts”, which are accompanied by a small glass of another Lorriane “special”

It is made from the local wine and flavoured with a mix of aromatics, which one of her daughter’s told me Lorraine had worked on, producing variations on a theme.

At which point I could go into detail, describing the meals we ate, but where would the fun be in doing that, when you can call up the site and explore the food for yourself?

Admittedly with the holiday season drawing to a close you may have to wait six months, but that just adds to the expectation of what is to be enjoyed. 

And that is it, other than to say having exhausted our own pictures of the place in the earlier blog story I have fallen on a selection of images from their dedicated site.

I hope Lorraine doesn’t mind.

Location; Lourdas, Kefalonia

Pictures; courtesy of Lorraine’s Magic Hill

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesrestaurant.gr/

** Tales from a Greek island part three …… the restaurant on the hill with a story https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/2019/08/tales-from-greek-island-part-three.html

Just how do you serve up a drink on Kefalonia? ……………. no. 3

A short occasional series featuring a picture and a memory.

It began as a competition to record as many different glasses at one restaurant as we could over the pace of three days.

The house wine ............ a litre bit more.

Location; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Picture; glass jar, 2019, from the collection of Balzano


Lorraine’s Magic Hill

Tales from a Greek island part three …… the restaurant on the hill with a story

It was our third day on the island, and we had already tired of the sea front restaurants, which offered much the same food and pretty much the same views.

And so, I suppose it was that combination of boredom and curiosity which took us across a field and up a steep flight of steps to “Lorraine’s Magic Hill”, which offered fresh and organic food, collected in the morning from their own fields and cooked that evening.

A measure of the popularity of the place was that on each of our three visits the restaurant was fully booked, with more than a few of the customers  returning again, and in some cases were loyal regular visitors who had been coming for years.

And we could see why, because while there was plenty of traditional Greek food on the menu, many of the dishes had been imaginatively enhanced by Lorraine’s style of cooking.

At which point I could reel off what we had eaten and what we wish we could have eaten, but that can be easily remedied by anyone who follows the link to their site.

Instead I shall focus on the restaurant, its location and above all Lorraine, her three daughters and the remaining seventeen staff who make the place special.

Which brings me to the story, because Lorraine is part Austrian, part German and part American, and comes from Montana.

She fell in love with “the love of her life” when she was just seventeen, and the pair decided to open a restaurant.

And the rest as they say, was a lot of hard work, steel determination, and a love of food, especially Greek food.

They open at 7.30 in the evening, but Lorraine will have been there since the morning, having taken a swim in the sea, while thinking of what mix of fresh food could be combined for the evening meals.

It is an approach which does sometimes lead to surprises with the meals that had been decided upon the night before undergoing slight changes as Lorraine tweaks a dish with a variation of herbs or a combination of different vegetables.

So it was, that on one of our nights there, a new aubergine starter was added, because the crop lifted from the field that morning was so perfect it required to be given its own special place on the menu.

And there were plenty more dishes which you could see were the product of that imaginative approach.

In turn, they were set off by the views from the restaurant out across the bay, which as the sun set were spectacular, to which can be added the friendliness of the staff their attentiveness and a few added little touches which I think I will leave you to discover.

Location; Lourdas Beech, Kefalonia

Pictures; Lorraine’s Magic Hill, 2019, from the collection of Balzano

* Lorraine’s Magic Hill, https://lorrainesmagichilllourdas.com/