Fast-casual restaurant Go Greek opens in Bohemia
Pork Gyro Pita with lettuce, tomato and onion on side from Go Greek in Garden City. Credit: Marisol Diaz
Since it opened four years ago in Garden City, Go Greek has carved out a niche as a casual, quick-serve restaurant that nevertheless elevates Greek food above that of the average gyro joint. Now owners Tom and Gabriella Matheos are bringing that same attention to value and quality to Bohemia. Their second location opens Saturday in the Bohemia Shopping Center on Sunrise Highway, a few doors east of Giunta’s Meat Farms.
Tom Matheos grew up in his parents’ restaurant, the Olympic Diner in Deer Park, but he left the fold to work at Chipotle. Over the course of his years at the chain, he saw that it was possible to run a successful restaurant that had no freezer or microwave and that relied on freshly prepared foods. He also noted that this was not a culinary truth universally acknowledged by other local fast-casual Greeks, with their cones of prefabricated gyro meat, their overdressed, iceberg-lettuce dominated salads and sour cream standing in for Greek yogurt.
For four years Matheos has explained to his Garden City customers that his gyro is not made from ground beef and lamb, but from hand-stacked slices of spiced pork shoulder — the way they do it in Greece — or hand-stacked slices of chicken. (He does do individual portions of grilled beef-lamb gyro for those who prefer it.) In Bohemia, however, he has bowed to popular demand, still serving the hand-stacked chicken gyro but relying on a ground beef-and-lamb gyro that he imports from Greece.
One thing that hasn’t changed: you can still get a gyro made the way it’s made in Greece, the meat wrapped in a pita with hand-cut fries, lettuce, tomatoes and tzatziki ($10 to $12 depending on meat).
In Bohemia, as in Garden City, you can get a traditional villager salad (cucumber, tomato, red onion, bell pepper, olives, imported feta and no lettuce), a romaine salad (shredded, with scallions, dill and feta), a barley salad and a chickpea salad but, after four years, he has also introduced a “Greek salad” — which is that American invention that puts a village salad over lettuce and adds a stuffed grape leaf. All salads are $10.95. Starters, $6.95, include tzatziki, spicy feta, roasted eggplant, spinach pie and grilled halloumi cheese.
In the “build your own” department: choose a pita sandwich, a rice bowl or a lettuce bowl and have it topped with chicken, pork, lamb, falafel, grilled vegetables or shrimp ($10 to $12).
New for Bohemia — and newly added to the Garden City menu — are entree “plates” ($17.95 to $24.95) featuring chicken, lamb, pork or shrimp, pastichio (Greek lasagna), spinach pie, grilled lamb chops or roast chicken. All are served with rice, grilled vegetables, pita, tzatziki and a choice of two sides (roasted lemon potatoes, hand-cut fries, gigantes beans, beat salad, or cauliflower).
Go Greek is at 4611 Sunrise Hwy., Bohemia, 631-563-2222; 180 7th St., Garden City, 516-746-2222, gofreshgreek.com.
