To Apostolis Tapsas, knowing about Greek cooking isn’t just about the ingredients or the technique. It’s about the culture.
And almost every dish on the menu at Mikonos has a story behind it, connected to a particular time and place.
“The dishes have history,” he said. “It’s like each one has a passport.”
For example, there’s the legend behind the lamb kleftico, which means “stolen lamb.” The dish is slow cooked, with the story being that bandits would steal a lamb and cook the meat beneath the fire, concealing it from prying eyes.
To have every meal connected to a time and place in Greek history is the vision of Tapsas.
Tapsas, 53, moved to Sayreville from Greece four years ago and opened Mikonos in April at a site that previously housed the Stewart’s Root Beer, Fame 2 and Hot Wok restaurants. Mikonos is named after the Agean island where Tapsas once lived.
Tapsas was born on the mainland of Greece, then moved to Mikonos, then started three restaurant/nightclubs on the island of Kefalonia. He said he spent 30 years in the restaurant industry learning to cook traditional Greek food.
Tapsas said he wants to bring higher-end cooking to an area where Greek food is mostly at the diner level.
Tapsas attended the Diagoras cooking school in Rhodes, Greece, where he learned how to make traditional Hellenistic cuisine, and also attended the Cordon Bleu school in Athens, where he learned how to supplement those dishes with French sauces.
Specialties at Mikonos include Dolmades, which are grape leaves stuffed with rice and herbs, Spanakopita, which is spinach pie with feta cheese, herbs and phyllo dough served with a side salad, papoutsakia, which is stuffed eggplant with vegetables topped with sauce, and chicken ala Greco, which is greek sauteed chicken with feta, olives and dried tomatoes.
Tapsas said it’s not just the taste that make Greek food worthwhile – it’s the health benefits. He said olive oil-based Mediterranean food is good for the heart and overall health.
Tapsas completely redecorated the restaurant, adding pictures of Greek vistas to the walls, putting decorative trestles on the ceiling and generally giving the place a facelift.
But Mikonos is just the beginning. Tapsas hopes to add more seafood to the menu soon, since seafood is his specialty, get a liquor license and add a dance floor.
“My dream is to make a bigger restaurant and have dancing,” Tapsas said.
The restaurant is already an entertaining place, since manager George Plegaro has been known to perform magic tricks for kids.
Tapsas also hopes to one day add more Mikonos locations.
After two months, Tapsas said, the restaurant has been a success, and he feels welcomed by the Ewing community. He said the people in town have been friendlier to him than people from neighboring islands were in Greece.
The basic idea behind Mikonos is a simple one.
“It’s very good tasting fresh food with good ingredients,” Tapsas said.
Mikonos is located at 50 Scotch Road in Ewing. Phone: (609) 883-9333. On the Web: mikonosrestaurant.com.
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