I’d call it common. Just shorthand for high-toned, and carrying some of the negative “elitist” connotations of posh and, since the early Obama days, fancy.
So far I can see, “tony” is very common slang for “fancy” or expensive. It’s the kind of thing you would see in celebrity gossip magazines—“a tony Manhattan apartment.”
It is somewhat common all over the U.S. in my experience. It just means fancy things usually reserved for the rich and stylish.
Oh man, I LOVE saying “the Levant.” Makes me feel like an Edwardian gentleman adventurer, or a 1920s San Francisco private eye, or at least Richard Halliburton.
I also use “the Orient” and “the Occident” when I can.
Well. I hope we all cleared that up.
Hmmm…42 years on this planet and an English major to boot, and somehow, I have never come across “tony.” Thanks, Dope, for filling in another one of my cultural black holes!
Nah, lamb is everywhere in Greece, on every menu of every taverna you are likely to come across. Nothing special (even if they might eat it, say, for an Easter feast).
Lamb is super-common in Greece. They might roast a whole one for special occasions.
Per Arby’s:
Gyro Meat:
Beef, Water, Bread Crumbs (bleached wheat
flour, dextrose, salt, yeast), Lamb, Soy Protein Concentrate,
Cereal Binder (corn, wheat, rye, oat and rice flours), Contains
Less than 2% of: Salt, Seasoning (spices, garlic powder, onion
powder, soybean oil), Yeast Extract, Disodium Inosinate &
Guanylate. CONTAINS: SOY, WHEAT.
ETA: It looks like they also have a roast beef gyro and a turkey gyro, but the classic gyro contains “gyro meat” (beef and lamb).
Interesting; when I stopped in, they didn’t have one of those – just the turkey gyro and the roast beef gyro. (Googling around a bit, it looks like they just added the lamb one as a limited-time special, back during the last week of March.)
Also, note there’s more bread crumbs than lamb in that one. 
(But, yes, this is a new limited time thing. They had the beef and turkey ones on the menu before, if it’s not a permanent item.)
Just a matter of simple economics. If the people like to eat lamb, the farmers raise more lamb, the price of lamb goes down, and people eat more lamb.
I wish Americans liked to eat lamb more.
Oddly enough, I went to the grocery store today with the taste of gyros on my mind and ground lamb was cheaper than ground beef. :eek: (Ground lamb at $2.99/lb, while ground beef started at $3.49/lb.) First time I’ve ever seen that.
Just a note on “Mezze”. One of the best meals of my life was a Greek restaurant in Bruges, Belgium and their sign out front read “Mezze and tapas”
My wife and I ordered “mezze” and it was the cook just bringing out one dish after another “until you say stop”. I think we quit after dish #9. It was fantastic.
There’s a chain called Verts (used to be Vertskebap) in Texas that is that Mediteranean (or whatever) Generally pretty tasty. It’s essentially either chicken, lamb/beef or falafel on a weird pressed flat bread. (Not a pita, but like a roll that’s smushed flat.) If I remember correctly,it was started in Austin by some European students who missed the food they got back home. I like their sauces.
I’ve been to a number of restaurants like the one described in the OP, and the best one near my office is decidedly Israeli.
I’ve also heard this type of restaurant referred to as Middle Eastern.
I wouldn’t say the concept is new. There’s one in a mall food court near me that’s at least five years old.
I’d never heard the term either, and I’m a journalist who gets exposed to a lot of pop culture stuff. But I shall now file it for future reference! 
And as for the OP: It sounds like you’re describing pretty much every kebab shop in Australia. And Kebabs are awesome, no matter whether you’re having one for lunch or it’s accompanying a small brewery’s worth of alcohol on a night out.
Ditto, except I’m 44.
I’m younger (32), but I’ve never heard it, either. And I tend to be somehow aware of slang that isn’t used in my area.
I mostly hear it in references to real estate and neighborhoods and locations.