Village Taverna: 'Simple' Greek fare in Queen Village
Chef used to work at Athena in Glenside.
The corner restaurant at Catharine Street and Passyunk Avenue in Queen Village, which was Italian (Trattoria Alla Costiera, Ulivo) and Indian (Imli) over the last decade, has reopened as Village Taverna (769 E. Passyunk Ave., 267-858-4277), a Greek BYOB.
Village Taverna is the ownership debut of Kostantin Dalamagas, a restaurant lifer who managed the Pietro's Coal Oven Pizzeria on South Street and worked among the BRU Craft & Wurst, U-Bahn, Uptown Beer Garden, Finn McCool's Ale House crew.
He's only minorly redecorated the comfortable, high-ceilinged dining room.
Chef Konstantine Grigorakakis, who was at Athena in Glenside for many years, is executing what he and Dalamagas call a simple menu of Greek standards, with a few Italian dishes (such as the red and white mussels) for good measure. "I grew up in an Italian neighborhood," says Dalamagas, who is from Chambersburg in Trenton.
Entrees are well under $20. Everything is made on premises, including the desserts, Dalamagas says.
It's open Tuesday to Sunday for dinner; weekend brunch will start in 2017.