Canadian restaurant offers authentic Greek experience July 8, 2007
Posted by grhomeboy in GreekTaste World.trackback
A new downtown restaurant is serving up authentic Greek cuisine in a festive atmosphere
“It’s an authentic Greek food restaurant, or experience. We have belly dancers. We have the Greek band playing on weekends. We break plates,” said Nikos Korolis, who owns Koutouki Taverna with Simon Papadopoulos and Yiannis Psalios. “We try to give the feel like you’re in Greece when you’re here.”
Koutouki Taverna, which seats about 200, opened at the beginning of May on Third Avenue South. After just a few weeks, Koutouki is busy, with Saskatoon diners flocking to the white and blue-themed restaurant.
“The word on the street’s been out there, and people are pretty excited about it. It’s something new in the city,” Korolis said.
For some diners, the name Koutouki may be familiar. That’s because the Psalios family owns several other Koutouki locations in Alberta, three in Edmonton and a new restaurant in Leduc, and has been featured on the Food Network television show, The Family Restaurant.
“They’ve done two seasons already, and they’re deciding on the third season right now, which, if they do, will be filmed in the fall,” said Korolis. “And, if that happens, we’ll probably do about three episodes here.” Korolis and Papadopoulos play in a Greek band called Tharos. They met Psalios, a Cyprus-born entrepreneur, through the band, “because he’d always call us down to come play,” said Korolis. The band also did the music for The Family Restaurant.
“We called Psalios up and we said, ‘Look, Saskatoon’s booming right now, and we should open up a Koutouki in Saskatoon. Do you still want to invest some money and do it?’ And he said, ‘Yeah.’ He jumped on the plane. The next day he was down here,” Korolis said.
Koutouki Taverna serves a variety of Greek dishes, including roast lamb, dolmades, stuffed vine leaves, spanakopita, spinach and cheese wraps and calamari, deep fried squid, as well as baclava, honey and nut pastry, and bougatsa, cream tart, for dessert.
Papadopoulos said opening the restaurant is exciting, and he’s glad he and Korolis have the opportunity to play live music in a Greek setting. He said customers are responding well to Koutouki’s energetic atmosphere.
“It’s a type of place where you’ll get to meet the people that are sitting next to you. You’re not only going to eat, you’re going to get dragged up to dance and have a shot of ouzo and enjoy a fun-filled dinner, rather than a sit-down dinner,” Papadopoulos said.
Koutouki Taverna is open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 4 p.m. to midnight on Saturday and Sunday.
KOUTOUKI TAVERNA, 119 Third Ave. South, Telephone: 244-4777.
grhomeboy
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