new york is a multicultural city and it's also amazing it's where you can find restaurants with dishes from around the world i'm at a restaurant on the west side where they serve unique modern greek dishes with a flair the atmosphere is very relaxed i'm so delighted to be healed with the heroes left th street and the restaurant and spent as the this the taste of new york i'm here spreads but some american influence says it's kind of new influences in there so kind of going down the line over here is santos a lot which is a traditional roasted eggplant spread nice smoky garlic flavor perfect on a hot probably one of the customers favorite thing one of my favorite thing this is our classic imus really you know happy hour is very common and people kind of see it over here is like a bar snack do a nice dollop here a little cold feet of cherry tomato and we are nothing short of that what's what about our forces we actually switch up the garnishes seasonally so right now in the middle of august we have our summer octopus so we do a poached graze the octopus that's finished on the grill  try to find the balance with the american palate where if you're in greece you're going to have octopus that's super tough very chewy that's how the greeks like to eat it but the american pow it seems to like it a little bit more tender so what we do is a beautiful breeze on there with some vinegar we have some sliced bread on in some balls cucumber salty capers and stuff just cracked green olives so we do the olive oil lemon juice again and we get a nice drizzle on there almost like a small salad if you will and toss it up in the boat again this is super summary of everything seasonal very refreshing and really perfect a company man of the chasing wild ass oh it's not what you're thinking it's a narrative my travel around the world i have been dispersed photos and our magic recipes which allows you to dream discover and rediscover these great destinations around the world the title of the book came about while we were chasing jackasses ed koch wild ass sanctuary and good about india and i thought it was a great title for the book this is food for the soul not only does it allow you to dream it's a dventure it's history it's color marry it's culture with a sense of humor to spice it out chasing while is a fellow bracing of life you have to live each day as if it's your last remember my world is  now and the menu is constantly evolving and we're really happy with the place where in right now this is on rico lovano and he is the owner one of the owners that's right and how many partners you have well it's my brother and i who run this particular restaurant we are the rd generation in our family business and restaurants so primarily it's my father who kind of runs the show my grandfather was our founder is still very active and while he likes to come around on tuesdays and bust our chops a little bit make sure things are running smoothly my father's brother runs our westchester operations and my father's sister  kareena is she still has two young kids but she's back and forth between oceana and modern barn and i'm like so she's very active very everyone is you know well we all chip in it's a family business that's that's how we like it yeah you know i think it's wonderful when you have people in the family who are part of a whole unit and they make it all work yeah and so and generations upon generations it's amazing we're always in the greek food industry what we see and mostly most are two greek was in restaurants but the rest of the group is actually a very very different variety of all cuisines oceana for example is primarily seafood american seafood modern barn and our monkey is american with mediterranean in and influences we have a elevator dishes and it's really quite x so how many restaurants are there all together at the moment there are sixty my god what a responsibility to watch and you know the wonderful thing is that i watched the chef prepare these wonderful dishes and it was all so quick you know and fresh when it's busy you need to have a system that you can put up the plates and a couple minutes but the freshness is something that has been stressed from my grandfather all the way down and there's a great story about that actually where he was doing a diner in long island not too long actually quite some time ago with his brother and one of the managers found a deal on a frozen fish so to speak but it was a great deal that they can sell and the story goes that my grandfather saw that there was frozen fish in the freezer and had a whole tirade if you will and said we need to get all this out here on i'll never solve frozen fish in the restaurant so trickled down to where we are today well you know st of all it's a whole different taste when something is frozen i've been in restaurants where they've had you know it's fresh you taste you know it's not fresh fresh fish there's nothing like it it's opened as the i agree and i think food so do you do but through our purveyors we have some really great relationships and we trust there they are all doing their best to get us the freshest the most local as well we like to stay within new york and we know we have a great relationship with the with the people that we who goes to fulton fish market and picks out selections daily and sixty five dollars am six am chef bill over at oceana as well does the union square farmer's market daily and we do the same so it's kind of it's all fresh exactly and you see what's out there you know what you need to be to be using what's what's what's active right now and what's what should be on the menus so does that mean you change your menu or by season definitely seasonally a l goes through for make overs a year and then from there you know of a city who is our executive chef at she's constantly whipping up one or two specials dalian or if we get a really excellent feedback from the regulars or from  and introduced flavors that we love very dearly and figure out a way for to get on the menu but i think you have this huge bar which is very appetizing because if you have a happy hour we do have a happy hour monday through friday we're actually doing some our friday happy hours as well monday through friday dollars to seven dollars five dollars draft beers seven dollars glasses of wine some to cocktails on there and then lot of the spreads and just kind of spreads and happy hour is a lot of fun i really do think we have one of the best bars in manhattan in regards to the bar program our general manager who is my brother as johnny he has positioned himself really to be the ambassador of greek spirits where he for his consuls that we have on the menu he actively tries to have one or more greek spirits in every cocktail same kind of philosophy that we do the food we want to introduce the products of greece and we're very passionate about that as well so that's kind of our philosophy for food beverage i'm not sure whether i'm pronouncing it correctly but  yeah i mean greece is such a marvelous country or it's a happy country i've been back in a while but i'm having those something's calling it to get back there i see that my friends are over there taking pictures and everything and i challenge everyone to try to find another destination outside of those two islands to really explore all the island oh god of a country and so as a matter of fact i was on the edge of the sea and we did a number of islands and and i mean it's just i had the most wonderful thing happen in rhodes as a matter of fact i love rhodes my grandfather went to high school there oh it's incredible because gentleman i can't remember the name of the place but walked in and he agreed about it and it was like i felt like he was the mayor he was that credible and then that night he said  pick you up and take you after that there are places you're going so i walked in and i said do you mind if we have another guest in it now and so we had this wonderful dinner then he brought us back to the restaurant and had a band for us it was amazing hospitality unbelievable i mean it's so special you know and every time i go and i've been there a number of towns i just love it there's always something else to explore and that's what happens here people come back because they've had a great experience that's what we that's what we strive for i mean if you can really make that connection with the guest it goes well you know it's from a restaurant perspective you're so happy that they're happy that they enjoyed everything and i feel like the customer also feels comfortable and they find a new local spot that they can be comfortable in and know that they have a great meal and treated with respect far west as you can see anyone who walks the area there's a tremendous amount of construction happening and new high rises and new residential condos and luxury buildings and everything so all these people moving in there they have to have somebody absolutely  restaurant business is such a volatile business but when you're in a business and be successful with it year after year how many years of your family have been in this business one thousand nine hundred and sixty if i'm not mistaken that's a lot and i for a grandfather open and you know just blossoms in the more you know like i'll tell somebody they'll tell somebody and it does mushrooms into an incredible experience and that's you know that's what really makes it all worth it and what makes me personally feel the most happy with what i'm doing years just getting for those who are having been here before i definitely recommend one to three it's going to get you started i picked six of my favorite but there's eight right now on the menu again the balance of traditional greek and new school if you will so for example th roasted red pepper in fact the cheese melons ocelot those smoky roast that i'd planned and censor any father as well just some perfect way to start and really kind of sets you up for the rest of the night so introduce you the flavors of the kitchen but i'm surprised that i and i love the idea that you have you know from the salads through that spreads to the sandwiches the main one is the medium plates and plates and sides i mean it's wonderful thank you you know i mean it's just i love the fact that it's simple  laden half lemon olive oil salt and then whatever green that they have plucked from the day so to be anywhere from just a simple greek salad preparation or some court which is wild greens  depends on the region but those will be here your main your main focus i'd say so every region has its own special definitely that's one i hadn't thought about never even though i've traveled around greece i do not going to see heavy meat dishes in my opinion on the islands because it's expensive it's not necessarily what the land brings to the table so if it grows together goes together kind of thing it makes sense yeah yeah you know again greece is one of those that's a nation that think everybody has to go to nigeria for so many reasons and from as i said promote his historical point to be a cultural form of food point of view i mean what could be more fabulous  not much how much you know you've got to go back i will it is not it is not early fall be next summer for sure why are you waiting so long just making sure things are run smoothly over here oh no  it's got to find the right time you know it all works out in the end but when you're in business it could absorb all of you five hundred percent it does so it's like and that's why you have to be happy with what you do and you have to be passion about it that's the word passion and s don't have passion in life what's the point my father actually says the same thing where it's not work if you love what you're doing and at times it is work but it's it's again it's very rewarding and we're having a lot of fun that's the most important thing i love thanks talk about this there's so joust lighter been on the menu since we opened again kind of our approach with introducing american favorites you know everyone loves a slider burger slider slider lobster roll slide or whatever it is so we made the jars lighter and you know we don't have a rotating spenda spindled in the back but we do a really nice cut of steak that we cut very thin and we build up on these two beautiful open face peters  great dish for the ball great dish for the bar a great dish if you want to bring your kids in great dish if you are yourself just looking for a tasty spin on the sandwich if you will so exactly and it's open face down this is our last presentation and these fries what do you very nice and a surprise but i thought i would have a different taste that's it that's all about kind of a balance exactly and actually i'm going to  that the condiments right the whole difference and you have that great feeling about it because of that and you've got the red onions i love red onions that's pop and drier in greece typically would be one large pita pork or chicken for the most part since he for sure and the pencil where he goes but a very common thing an ingredient unusual sauce but they're common and they're interesting so what are some of the other plans for your restaurant chain operandi you know just what we want to do primarily but where you know always people reaching out with locations and things like that you know you explore it but you have to really wait for the right opportunity to be successful i think so w primary business is lunch or dinner depends on the restaurant but i definitely was a sinner over here dinner for sure yeah because then people can relax exactly after a hard day at work in the office on the glass of wine cocktail enjoy the menu right  w i mean what else give us for that's perfect and in the design of a lot of a lot of that was focused on creating the most comfortable environment for the customer so for example our two tops are have about an extra six inches or to full capacity music going we can still have a conversation at this level which is i think very important it's unbelievable because you know some places and everyone screaming and wondering what is that all about disagreeing with the music so loud right and it's unnecessary so we're very conscious of that