When Boukiés opens tomorrow in the East Village, it will be the sixth new (or completely renovated) Greek restaurant to open in the past 10 months — and we’re not talking diners with blue-and-white paper place mats.
New York City’s newest Greek restaurants are smartly designed, service-oriented and seriously food-driven, exploring the range of Greek cuisine in ways we’re not accustomed to, while still honoring ingredients everyone knows and loves.
“In the past,” says Greek restaurateur Christos Valtzoglou, “Greek food [in NYC] meant traditional dishes, but there’s so much more.”
At Boukiés (29 E. Second St.), you’ll find recognizable flavors — with a twist. “Not-so-classic Greek tavern mussel saganaki” ($12) is their version of one of the absolute musts from the mezedopoleia (meze restaurants) of Thessaloniki, says consulting chef Diane Kochilas. There are the usual components — mussels, olive oil, spicy tomato sauce, feta, but what differentiates it is that the feta is smoked.
“This food is modern in that it is beautifully plated, and prepared with local ingredients as well as imported Greek specialty products,” says Kochilas.
Maria Loi, whose eponymous first US restaurant (208 W. 70th St.) opened in October, is also challenging traditional Greek dishes.
“People think Greek food is only tzatziki and souvlaki,” says the Greek-cuisine ambassador, who was invited to the White House last month to prepare a Greek Independence Day feast, “but this is the street Greek food.”
Instead, she offers a gorgeous, generous baby arugula salad with hazelnuts and metzovone cheese (similar to gouda) perfectly dressed with fig balsamic vinaigrette ($15) and a great antidote to the traditional cucumbers, olives and feta.
Dessert such as eknek kataifi ($8), a delicate cream pie with a shredded phyllo base, is also a far cry from the traditionally heavy, super-syrupy dessert one may expect. That’s not to say familiar baklava is absent from today’s menus; it’s just not the baklava of old. Midtown’s newly renovated Molyvos (871 Seventh Ave.), has a lighter, chocolate version for $9.
“What everyone knows as Greek food in New York is what you get in a taverna,” says Konstantinos Batalamas, owner of Thymari in Astoria (32-07 34th Ave.), which opened in February. “Even Greeks have forgotten their roots,” he says.
But Batalamas is aiming to remind us via homestyle dishes that include ouzo-soaked dakos (a sort of day-old barley bread), combined with tomato purée, feta, capers, olive oil and thyme, in what some might call bruschetta, for $12. Pan-seared and roasted ortikia (quail, $24) is another ingredient we’re not yet accustomed to expect, yet it’s the most popular game bird in Greece.
Chef-restaurateur Michael Psilakis will also focus on items he grew up eating regularly at home when he opens MP Taverna in Astoria this summer (31-29 Ditmars Blvd.), the third branch of his mini-chain. “The excitement of something that reminds you of home is exponential,” he says, referring to both Greece and Queens, where much of his staff was raised. Psilakis, who most know well from the Upper West Side’s Fish Tag and Kefi, is proud of the direction his homeland’s food is taking. “We’ve taken Greek food out of the ethnic genre and turned it into mainstream food,” he says.
At Park Slope’s Faros (84 Seventh Ave.), which opened last June, chef de cuisine Eleni Georgiou makes the lightest, most delicate keftedakia (meatballs) you may ever experience. And the space is pretty unique, too — three floors, exposed brick, balconies, private decks — which combined have the same overall feeling as their peers: restaurant, not old-school travel agent. Now the food does all the work.
Nowhere is that more true than at Yefsi, where chef/partner Christos Christou, a Molyvos and Milos alum, is making York Avenue a dining destination.
“The service, the ambiance, the value, the authenticity, and the octopus is the best I’ve ever had,” gushes diner Andrew Tsunis who lives on the Upper West Side but has come east f eight times since they opened in January for the octapodi ($13) — awesomely tender grilled shellfish served with red peppers, capers and onions.
With great food, of course, also comes great wine — not something for which Greece is usually lauded. “Greek wine is not retsina,” says Loi, who hired a sommelier to help gather over 200 Greek varietals for Bar Loi, which officially opens today.
“The best way to enjoy Greek wine,” says Loi sommelier Marco Divine, “is to see the similarities to sauvignon blanc, French blends, wines you know and taste, compare, remember.”
Ask any of these new restaurants about Spyros Hatziyiannis and Costa Lazaridi and countless other producers creating high quality wines that pair wonderfully with their brethren food.
“People have experience with French and Italian,” says Valtzoglou, referring to both cuisine and wine. “Now is the time for Greek.”
We couldn’t agree more. Opa!
TRY SOMETHING NEW!
* Instead of tzatziki, try the Tirokafteri at Faros: a tangy feta-based dip with hot peppers ($5).
* Instead of spanikopeta, try the Manitaropitakia Nymfaio at Boukiés: savory mushroom phyllo pies ($9).
* Instead of “Greek Salad,” try the Octapodi Skharas at Molyvos: shellfish and an arugula salad with potatoes ($18).
* Instead of lamb souvlaki, try the Arni Youvetsi at Yefsi: a braised lamb shank over Lazanaki noodles ($19).