Greek restaurant MP Taverna closes in Roslyn

Michael Psilakis, the Franklin Square native who catapulted to culinary fame with a series of swank Greek restaurants in and around New York City, has shuttered his only Long Island property, MP Taverna, which opened in Roslyn in 2011. The restaurant has been closed since Wednesday. A manager at the MP Taverna in Irvington, New York, confirmed the closure, but Psilakis did not respond to requests for comment.

When it first opened, MP Taverna garnered  3½ stars from Newsday, but in the ensuing years, both the service and the quality of food declined. At a dinner in 2014, dishes were sloppily plated, an enthusiastically described grilled whole striped bass turned out to be a boneless fillet, and the same special request was ignored three times. All the while, the general manager ate dinner in the dining room. 

Aside from the MP Taverna in Irvington, Psilakis currently operates (with partners) Kefi on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, but at one time he presided over four MP Tavernas — the locations in Williamsburg in Brooklyn  and Astoria, Queens  have both closed — as well as a succession of ambitious Greek restaurants in Manhattan, among them Onera, Mia Dona, Anthos and Fishtag. He was also a regular presence on Food Network, appearing on "Ultimate Recipe Showdown," "Iron Chef America" and "The Best Thing I Ever Ate."

Before he crossed the East River and became an avatar of modern Hellenic cuisine, Psilakis ran a very good Italian restaurant, Ecco, in Garden City Park from 2001 to 2004.

While it was still operating, the Roslyn property was shown to at least two local restaurateurs for a possible sale. One of them, Gillis Poll, said that the lack of a parking lot was a deal breaker. The three largest restaurants in Roslyn Village, Hendricks Tavern (owned by Gillis and his brother George), Kyma and Jolly Fisherman, have large private parking lots; patrons of the village’s other eateries must fight over a limited number of municipal spots.