est. 2006 CELEBRATING TEN YEARS THANK YOU Greek Grill House 34-01 30th Ave., Astoria, N.Y., 11103 www.ovelianyc.com 718-721-7217 DECEMBER 2016 I BOROMAG.COM I 45 If you visit Ovelia, make sure to taste the Kaimaki vintage ice cream made with salepi and mastiha and served with sour cherry preserves. The Ovelia team imported the ingredients and came up with the recipe, and Astoria ice cream shop Sweet Janes makes it for the restaurant. The Monastiraki Bifteki (ground lamb, beef and pork kebabs) was named after an area in Athens where Giannakas’ parents used to go on dates before they got married. Chris and Peter’s parents would bring them there when the family visited Greece. Lahmatzoun, a dish that’s really popular in Turkey and Armenia, is also one to try, Giannakas said. It’s made with flat bread, minced lamb, pork, beef, onions and parsley. “With the Greek cuisine, pretty much everything that you serve, you’re processing at the restaurant. You can’t go buy certain things; it’s not here. So you have to think about it from scratch. Where do you procure the ingredients, and what do you do with them?” Giannakas has seen the way Astoria has transformed over the years, beginning when he was a child and his father had a souvlaki stand in Astoria Park on summer weekends. “The neighborhood’s changed a lot since we started Ovelia, and we’ve grown and changed with the neighborhood,” he said. “It keeps us on our toes with what we’re doing and we’ve revisited what we’re doing with the restaurant. It’s been an interesting trip, and we’ve had a lot of fun with it.” Giannakas said that Ovelia has become a hangout for locals and immigrants from Greece. “It’d be a spot where they’d come and they’d meet other people, and obviously we’d help wherever we could, whether it be work or trying to get them a place to stay, and in a way, you serve the community in that respect.” At Ovelia, Giannakas’ parents and Peter Giannakas “do the kitchen stuff,” Giannakas said, while he works with the front of the house and the bar. He also did the restaurant’s interior design, graphics, logos and marketing. “And I’m a plumber and electrician and fix everything else that breaks in that restaurant; that’s what happens when you’re a small business,” he added. “But it’s funny because everyone has a say in everything, so it’s never really a unilateral decision,” Giannakas said. “It’s always kind of like a family situation.” Ovelia 34-01 30th Ave., Astoria 718-721-7217
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