From the Editors
Posted by estiator at 10 May, at 05 : 16 AM Print
Blockbusters
If May starts with mothers and spring flowers, it ends with picnics and the beginning of the movie blockbuster season. And, fittingly, this month’s Estiator has two big blockbuster features for our readers.
For our cover story, “Silver Linings: Restaurateurs Share Stories Behind Covid Openings,” senior contributor Michael Kaminer speaks with two veteran Greek American restaurateurs —Boston’s Demetri Tsolakis (Committee, Krasi, Greco) and New York’s Stratis Morfogen (Brooklyn Chophouse, Brooklyn Dumpling Shop)— who are among a field of entrepreneurs opening restaurants (cocktail bar Hecate for Tsolakis, and the behemoth Pappas for Morfogen) mid-pandemic. Both establishments offer an escape to city dwellers shuttered up, cooped up, and masked up for the past 24 months, and are off to a great start.
In the meantime, senior editor Constantine Kolitsas picks up where he left off with last month’s feature on the history and living tradition of Greek pizza, albeit digging into the glory of a different American classic, in “Once Upon a Hot Dog: How the Greeks of the Northeast Shaped an American Fast Food Classic.” Hold the ketchup and pass the Greek chili, this is a story that has been under our noses for nearly a century with rarely a word mentioned until now (no more spoilers—turn to the story now so you’re ready with some delicious twists for your Memorial Day barbecue!).
For his monthly “Managing for Success” column, Kolitsas puts on his consulting hat and rips into the cottage industry that has been making reservation software both a gift to the upscale segment of restaurant industry and (often) the bane of its existence.
Finally, in our Greek language section, Athens correspondent Gina Kallitsi introduces us to the products of Dimitris Boumbas’s Tyrokomeio (“cheese factory”) before taking us on a scrumptious tasting tour of Omicron Meze, an eatery in the Nea Kifissia section of the Greek capital.
We hope that this issue, with its blockbuster features and departments, ushers in a blockbuster summer for all of you, studded with highest-ever grossing sales, record-breaking guest counts, and epic profits.
The Editorial and Publishing Staff
