The story of high quality Greek restaurants begins in 1987 in Greenwich Village with the opening of "Periyali" by Nicola Kotsoni and Steve Tzolis. Owners of the successful Tuscan Il Cantinori restaurant, one of the first authentic regional Italian restaurants in New York, which they opened in 1983, Nicola and Steve opened Periyali in response to the expressed desire of Il Cantinori regulars for a
Classic Greek restaurant of similar quality. This was as they had done in 1978 with the opening of La Gauloise, one of the first traditional French bistros, later to become a more casual French- Moroccan bistro with the new opening of Bar Six in 1994. They never imagined that more than 20 years later, Periyali would be one of the most famous Greek restaurants in Manhattan. The first restaurant to introduce traditional Greek cuisine, Periyali also put Greek wine on the map. In fact, Frank Briar of the New York Times held a Greek wine tasting at Periyali in 1988, the first of its kind in New York. The romantic Greek word for "coastline" or "seashore", the name Periyali was chosen because so much of the food originated in the Greek Islands, specifically Patmos, home of Periyali's first consulting chefs, Irene and Victor Gouras. Their delicious 'home cooking' and family recipes were simply extensions of "Patmian House," their seasonal restaurant on the island of Patmos. The Periyali menu was created with the help of Charlie Pakmer, after many months of preparation. Favorite dishes, such as fava or charcoal grilled and red wine marinated octopus, are just two of the many noteworthy entrees on the menu first introduced in a Greek restaurant. Charles Bowman, of La Cote Basque and The River Café, was now the executive chef in charge of the kitchen, redefining Greek cuisine in New York for more than a decade.
