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It's a claim that could well be true.

When Marquee paid a visit the other day, we found the house specialty crisp, cool and well balanced. Greek salads are ubiquitous on Michigan menus, but they tend to be a fistful of iceberg; a crumble of feta cheese; some slices of beet, still dripping with juice from the can; and a douse of forgettable oil and vinegar dressing.

The dressing on E.G. Nicks' Greek has character and history. The dressing comes from managing partner's grandparents, who first had it on the menu of their wildly popular Mitch's Tavern on Oakland County's Cass Lake. According to Jeff Ryeson, managing partner at E.G. Nick's in Lapeer, in the 1950s people lined up for the Greek salad and breadsticks at Mitch's.

And while the tavern and its owners, George and Ella Mitchell are now a part of history, the salad and breadsticks they created live on in restaurants opened by family members across southeast Michigan.

"When I go on a trip," said Ryeson, "the first thing I want when I get home is a Greek salad and breadsticks." That's saying something for a guy who's been in the family business since he was 15.

Even when he went to Michigan State University to study advertising, he worked weekends at his godfather's restaurant in Howell, first known as Gus' and later as Tomato Brothers.

His first restaurant job was at the Highland House on M-59 in Highland Township, which like his godfather's place features the concept and many of the recipes perfected by his grandparents on Cass Lake.

After graduating from MSU in the early 80s, his cousins Eila and Greg Nicholas invited Ryeson to join them as managing partner in a new restaurant venture in Lapeer. Another relative in the real estate business had run across a failed restaurant on M-24 that was available at an attractive price and in 1983 the trio opened the first E.G. Nick's.

Ryeson's been there ever since. While there are now E.G. Nick's in Brighton and Plymouth, it's not a chain. Instead, explained Ryeson, instead the various E.G. Nick's, Highland House and Tomato Brothers are a series of partnerships between family members and like any extended family there are many similarities between branches.

Ryeson calls his E.G. Nick's "an American bar and grill." After a pipe burst in the basement several years ago, he upgraded the place's look with a lean toward Frank Lloyd Wright's timeless Prairie Style. The wood, stone and earth tones give the restaurant a very relaxing feel and the background music is loud enough to muffle the conversation from the next table, while not drowning out your own.

"We're like Applebee's, but nicer," Ryeson said. He said he's gone for a casual environment that's equally attractive for a working lunch, a family night out or date night.

While the menu lists a small, medium and large Greek salad, Marquee would suggest sticking to nothing more than a small appetizer when having the small salad. Based on E.G. Nick's small, we suspect a medium would be more than adequate for lunch by itself and we don't want to contemplate a large.

We opted for the steak quesadilla and discovered it would have been quite enough all by itself. The meat was tender and tasty and the vegetables were tender crisp. At too many places the Tex-Mex favorite comes with mushy peppers and stringy beef.

Ryeson said a typical lunch at E.G. Nick's is $8 and dinners average $14. Marquee's choice of a small Greek salad, steak quesadilla and coffee tipped the scales a tickle over $20, including tip, making it the priciest lunch we've had in Lapeer so far -- but worth it.

One of the restaurant's more expensive, though highly touted items is its planked whitefish. The chefs at E.G. Nick's have adopted a cooking method made popular in Charlevoix, staking a slab of Lake Superior whitefish to a maple plank.

Located at 825 South Main, E.G. Nick's is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 9 p.m. Sundays. They accept Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover and the ever popular, cash.