Charting change in the U District through one of its most beloved restaurants

Taso Lagos first immigrated to Seattle with his family from Greece when he was just nine years old. For 40 years, this family constellated around the Continental Restaurant on University Way NE, near the University of Washington.

Lagos' new book, Cooking Greek, Becoming American: Forty Years at Seattle's Continental Restaurant, follows his family's journey to the United States and how the iconic establishment impacted not just his life, but generations of Seattlites.

Lagos hasn't been inside the restaurant that defined much of his adolescent life since his family chose to move away from the popular local eatery. But memories of life at the Continental are still fresh, both sweet and bitter — including the routine mornings his mother spent relentlessly cleaning and prepping the dining area and kitchen, and the droves of college students that looked to The Continental for quality hangover food.