Greek restaurant Souvlaki Street opens in Bellmore

A year or so ago, after working briefly at Bellmore’s 1331 Mediterranean Grill, a Greek restaurant where he’d been hired to improve business, Alex Katehis left the establishment, having concluded that the owner wasn’t receptive to his ideas. But his employer kept his contact information, and probably also remembered Katehis’ words when he left. “I said, ‘I wish I had this restaurant,’” he recalled. “And a year later, I did.” Katehis bought 1331 earlier this year, made some improvements and reopened the place as Souvlaki Street in June.

Starting a new business during Long Island’s slow summer months might seem a questionable decision to some, but Katehis’s small Greek eatery has already proved a hit with locals. "We always try to do the best for our customers,” he said.

Together with his wife Ismini, Katehis is building a solid takeout business, and eat-in service is growing too, even with just four tables in the dining room and a couple outside on busy Newbridge Road. They appear to owe much of their success to a simple, well-worn formula — good food at good prices — as evidenced by the avalanche of well-seasoned meat in the chicken souvlaki gyro ($11) and the family platters for two, which cost $33 but could well feed a family of four. Each comes with two choices of meat, salad, dips, pita and a starch — go for the fine lemon potatoes. (The $66 family platter for four means four choices of meat along with everything else.)

 The most popular item on Souvlaki Street’s menu of classic taverna fare so far is kotobacon — chunks of grilled chicken wrapped in bacon — which is served as a wrap ($11.50), as part of a platter that includes a choice or soup, salad and more ($19), or as add-on to the restaurant’s family platters ($3).

Souvlaki Street is at 1906 Newbridge Rd. in Bellmore; 516-826-8400, souvlakistreetny.com. Opening hours are daily from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

By Scott Vogel

scott.vogel@newsday.com

Newsday writer and restaurant critic Scott Vogel aims for a refreshing, gimlet-eyed take on the Long Island food scene, often while drinking a refreshing gimlet.