Results tagged “kefi”

Before he had ever spent any substantial time in restaurant kitchens, the chef Michael Psilakis went to college and earned an accounting degree. Oddly, it was a fluke, part-time post-graduation waitering gig at a T.G.I. Fridays that first convinced him that he should be a chef and restaurateur. His father Gus had always been a generous culinary daredevil, having built a spit in the backyard for roasting whole lamb, and he imparted a strong love of home cooked food. At the same time, Psilakis' mom taught him the basics of classic Greek cuisine, so it's not unusual that his new restaurant—just opened in the original Kefi space—combines comfort food like homemade potato chips and choices like smokey tomato soup with made-from-scratch versions of riblets and tater tots.

This week the Times's Frank Bruni opines on the new location of Kefi, the insaaaanely cheap Upper West Side Mediterranean restaurant from chef Michael Psilakis (Anthos, Mia Dona, Friend of Gothamist). Bruni admits he's a big fan of Psilakis, but doesn't pull punches in this surprisingly mixed review, in which he complains of "palate mononucleosis" from "runaway saltiness." And "while most dishes are satisfying in a hyper-robust way, some have at least one and usually two ingredients too many." Ultimately, Bruni thinks Kefi used to be cool, back at the original location: "There, many of the same dishes were executed with more precision and restraint. It was a lesser stage, but it was a greater one."

Acclaimed chef Michael Psilakis told the New York Times yesterday that he and restaurateur Donatella Arpaia will soon convert the original Kefi into a “comfort food” spot called Gus & Gabriel’s. The restaurant’s name derives from Psilakis’ late father Gus and his three-year-old son Gabriel. Psilakis also told Josh Ozersky that “the logo will be that of an adult and a child; obviously that’s my father, Gus, and my son, Gabriel, but it also a symbolic representation of the individual inner child and their appetite for the reassuring and familiar tastes, especially in hard times.” If one also counts the logo for chef Emma Hearst’s 2-month-old restaurant Sorella (translation: sisters)—which depicts two wine-quaffing, sleepy-eyed ladies, then we have a recession special, mini-trendlet on our hands: restaurants named after family members, with logos depicting family. Too bad the just-opened Grandaisy Tribeca uses its regular, floral emblem instead of a stern-looking senior holding a rolling pin.

Good news for budget gourmands on the Upper West Side; after being closed for two days by the Department of Health, Kefi will reopen tonight at 5 p.m. The wildly popular Greek restaurant, which recently moved to a bigger space with the same high-quality, low-priced menu, was closed Wednesday after a health inspector cited them for missing paperwork, improper food storage, and not having a sink in the basement where prep work is done. A publicist for Michelin-starred chef Michael Psilakis tells us "the proper paperwork has been filed and an inspection this afternoon resulted in zero violations. Opa!" That last bit, according to the internets, is a Greek exclamation used to express joy.

Kefi, the insanely popular Greek restaurant (photos) with the astonishingly sane prices, was closed yesterday by the Health Department. Chef Michael Psilakis—who has never been slapped with such a serious DOH penalty at his other hit restaurants, which include Anthos and Mia Dona—says the problem had to do with a paperwork oversight, not the usual "rat rodeo" situation that has shuttered other eateries in recent years. The Health Department confirms they closed Kefi after it failed its initial pre-permit inspection:

They were found operating without a permit and a Food Protection Course certificate holder present. Other factors that contributed to the closure included holding several food items at unsafe temperatures and having no hand washing sink in the food preparation area in the basement. In order to reopen, the operator of Kefi must apply for a permit, correct all conditions that led to violations, submit an affidavit of correction to the Health Department and schedule a re-opening inspection.

An e-mail sent to The Feedbag by Psilakis's publicists notes that "once the paperwork failure was imminent, Psilakis felt the inspector conducted the most thorough inspection he has ever been through in his professional career, which resulted in additional violations." It's a bitter pill for the Michelin-starred chef, given the recent rave reviews from Steve Cuozzo at the Post, and the fact that the opening of this new Kefi location was already delayed almost three months.

Note to fabulously good-looking, scrupulously healthy restaurant Rouge Tomate (pictured): the Times's Frank Bruni doesn't appreciate your good intentions. He opines, "In addition to a head chef with obvious talent, it employs a nutritionist, who makes certain that dishes have optimal ratios of meats to vegetables and fruits to nuts and don’t traffic recklessly in calories or the wrong fats...While about a quarter of the dishes are knockouts, at least as many are overly calculated and fastidious, suggesting there’s such a thing as too much balance. The same fruity, nutty, seedy notes pop up too often: during one meal I felt tyrannized by pomegranate, antioxidized to a fare-thee-well."

Chef Michael Psilakis (friend of Gothamist) and partner Donatella Arpaia have finally opened the hotly anticipated, bigger location of Kefi, the Greek restaurant hailed by the Times in 2007 as "immensely appealing." The cozy original on 79th Street is regarded as one of the best deals in town, and the new location on Columbus Avenue, between 84th and 85th Streets, has miraculously not instituted a price hike. The $16.95 prix fixe is shockingly reasonable, especially considering the culinary talents of Psilakis, who has also won raves for Anthos and Mia Dona.

On all counts, Michael Psilakis has been on quite a roll. Though his two-starred Dona was shuttered due to a real estate snafu, he went on to earn a Michelin star at Anthos, one of only two Greek restaurants with this honor, his to-die-for gnudi recipe was featured on the cover of Bon Appetit, was named Esquire's chef of the year, and opened up Mia Dona, which just yesterday earned two stars from Frank Bruni. Now, to top it off, he's been named as one of Food & Wine Magazine's Best New Chefs of the year. Congratulations! The list is definitely lacking in the New York department, though. Where's the love?

Wildly successful young chef and restaurateur Michael Psilakis – whose Anthos is one of only two Greek restaurants in the world with a Michelin star – refined his talent not in culinary school but in the kitchen beside his Greek mother during his childhood on Long Island. After earning a business degree, he found himself drawn back to the food world, where he worked his way up from waiter to owner of the Long Island restaurant Ecco. His subsequent enterprise with celebrated restaurateur Donatella Arpaia, called Dona, was one of Esquire's Best New Restaurants in 2006, but the place closed when the building housing it was sold to a developer.