Yamas, a new Greek restaurant, is soon coming to 5308 Balcones Dr in the Allandale neighborhood of Austin, near Chez Zee and Fajita Petes.
“We will have lots of Greek dishes — it’s hard to explain not in Greek,” co-owner Hristos Nikolakos to What Now Austin (Mr. Nikolakos will be running the restaurant alongside his wife, Roxie).
“But we’ll have lots of fresh seafood, like sea bass, grand dorado, black drum, shrimp, a lot of it cooked on the grill. We like mixing it up, too. We’ll have sliced fish with cyprus sauce, which will be a kind of Japanese-Peruvian fusion. Another dish will be lobster pasta, made with hand-crafted pasta — that will be one of our specialties.”
When asked about his decision to open a Greek restaurant in Austin at this particular time, Mr. Nikolakos points to his past and his long-standing wishes.
“I had three traditional, taverna-style restaurants in Greece. I wanted to open my own restaurant as long as I can remember. It was actually one of the first things I wanted to do when I first came here. My passion was always the kitchen.”
In ending the call, Mr. Nikolakos strikes an optimistic note for the future of the much-anticipated Yamas.
“I believe there’s a hole in the market and I believe we’re going to succeed. We will be a great restaurant.”
