Restaurant
Veteran Readies new Seafood Haven in Englewood, NJ
It was the
middle Nineties when entrepreneur George Mandilaras decided to open his
restaurant on Ditmars Boulevard. He intended it to be a seafood haven where you
could have a great variety of excellently prepared fish and crustaceans at
humble prices. He named his restaurant Kyclades Taverna and soon his
establishment had an unbelievable impact in the neighborhood. Guests poured in
not only from the immediate area in this part of northwestern Queens, but from
the rest of the boroughs in New York City, from Long Island, and New Jersey as
well.
One of the
first to discover this rising star of gastronomic pleasures was Tim Zagat, then
the owner of Zagat Survey. He walked in out of the blue one evening, checked
out its wares and prices and wrote a wonderful review in that year’s Guide.
Many critics followed in his footsteps, each giving due credit to the fledgling
eatery making it one of the most successful in its era. The restaurant became
synonymous to seafood and low prices.
Eight years or
so later, Mandilaras, whose children were still of school age, overwhelmed by
the pressures of the restaurant business decided to turn the responsibilities
over to his chef Adrian Skenderi and in doing so he kept the exclusivity of the
trademark so he can use it in the future when his sons were old enough and
trained in the food industry, which is the present.
Equipped with
the know-how and past successes, Mandilaras is now ready for a comeback with
the new Kyclades Taverna, this time in Englewood, NJ at 51 East Palisades
Avenue. Just like the original Kyclades Taverna, this new establishment across
the Hudson River from New York City, will be a seafood sanctuary with
Greek/Mediterranean influences. It will seat about 80 guests and will feature a
bar that will introduce a great variety of Greek wines among its gallery of
international spirits. Target date for the new restaurant’s opening is March
2014.
