It’s all Greek to North Brooklyn!
Locals Sarah Schneider and Demetri Makoulis, the married duo behind Williamsburg’s Egg Shop (138 North 8th St.), have just opened a new Greek restaurant called Gus and Marty’s (232 N 12th St.) in the former home of Santo Parque. The 65-seat newcomer opened on October 4 and marks the owners’ first foray into dinner fare.
Several Greek restaurants have opened in North Brooklyn recently, but Schneider and Makoulis hope to offer something a bit different. “We live dangerously close to the restaurant and are and have been very familiar with the food scene,” Schneider said.
Locals will immediately notice that the look of Gus and Marty’s differs from other Greek spots in the neighborhood. The newcomer does not use the blue hues of Meraki (252 Grand St.), Pita Grill (77 Norman Ave.) and Greek Kitchen (912 Manhattan Ave.), nor does it evoke a seaside atmosphere like Psaraki (420 Kent Ave.).
The owners used earthier, darker tones to recreate the homey vibes found in Greek tavernas that are not along the coast. “We deliberately stayed away from blue and white decor and branding because not all of Greece looks like Santorini and because Demetri’s family is from lush, mountainous northern Greece,” Schneider explained. “Greece isn’t all blue and white, and, in fact, where Demetri is from, nearly nothing is.”
“No matter which random taverna we would stumble across in Greece, there was a timelessness, familiarity, consistency, and sense of hospitality that we wanted to replicate for Williamsburg,” Schneider said.
Gus and Marty’s, named after the owners’ fathers, is decorated with family photos from their parents’ albums. “We wanted to imbue the space with a real sense of family, love, and history,” Schneider said.
Gus and Marty’s food menu is focused on traditional Greek dishes that spoke to Demetri’s upbringing and the couple’s travels in Greece, Schneider told Greenpointers, while noting that they left a little room for creative license.
The menu opens with marinated olives, caviar-topped taramasalata, and pita with eggplant, feta, and tzatziki dips. Schneider said the team spent a lot of time perfecting the pitas, which are all handmade and come out of the stone oven moments before hitting the diner’s table.
“While we tested many iterations of our dips, which we love, we are obsessed with taramasalata, and we tried many different versions, landing at a traditional version tweaked with Balthazar bread as a base and topped with trout caviar,” Schneider explained.
The menu’s next section offers Greek pies with spinach, cheese, or meat. “When we were playing with our pies, my mother actually created a tray of spinach, meat, and cheese pies for Chef to use as a foundation for ours,” Schneider said, noting the family ties. (Even the olive oil is imported from Demetri’s cousin’s family olive farm.)
The menu’s next section offers shareable plates like feta saganaki with thyme-infused honey, grilled lamb riblets with dates, moussaka and Greek fries. “If it were allowed, we’d eat cheese saganaki all day long, but we always hated the fact that if you don’t eat it quickly, it starts to have a rubbery consistency. So we went with feta and wrapped it in phyllo, so it still has a softer consistency, even as it cools down, and blasted it with thyme-infused honey for that perfect sweet and savory mix,” Schneider explained.
Schneider added that she wanted to bring some New York flavor to the moussaka, so their version “is inspired by an eggplant parm, consisting of a beautiful, single medium-cut slice of eggplant over a bed of ragu and under a bed of bechamel topped with traditional vlahotiri cheese.”
The next section of the menu includes salads and vegetables like a classic horiatiki salad, blistered red peppers, fried zucchini, and crispy lemon potatoes, followed by the menu’s final section with grilled fish and meats.
Though Gus and Marty’s aesthetic stays away from seaside vibes, the food menu does not leave out fish. There are light-fried crispy anchovies, marinated sardines, whole shrimp, octopus skewers with a black garlic paste, and an incredible whole branzino. The section also includes lemon chicken, lamb shoulder, herb marinated lamb chops, and pork gyros with fries.
“Every time Demetri’s in Greece, there’s rarely a night that doesn’t end with a gyro, no matter the time, so building our own wheel of Pat La Frieda meat, rubbed with our own proprietary spice blend and miniaturizing servings to something more akin to a taco was something we had a lot of fun tasting and testing,” said Schneider.
Gus and Marty’s drink menu includes classic cocktails like negronis and martinis, plus ouzo, mastiha, and a variety of beers and a rotating selection of wines from Greece, including some the average American may not have tried, like roditis and xinomavro, one of the most Greece’s most popular red grapes.
Schneider and Makoulis could not sleep on breakfast. They told Greenpointers that they are gearing up for weekend coffee and breakfast service in late October or early November, that will include traditional drinks, freddos and frappes, as well as Greek pastries, pies, and petit gyros, and a Greek-inspired breakfast sandwich.
Gus and Marty’s is currently open Wednesday through Monday for dinner service starting at 5 p.m.