Giannis and Stavros Metekidis said after growing up in a family of chefs and restaurant owners, they were bound to follow suit.
Their grandfather was a chef who owned a few diners in New Jersey before opening a restaurant back in their home in Greece. Their aunt was also a chef, and their mother’s cooking inspired many items on the menu.
“It starts with family,” Stavros said. “We grew up into the business.”
In 2024, the two opened their first restaurant in Franklin Square, aptly named Greek Brothers, and earlier this year, they opened a second location in Manhasset at 444 Plandome Road.
The brothers were born and raised in Greece before moving to the United States for work and higher education. Giannis, who has a background in finance and sales, handles the back-end of the business, while Stavros is the chef.
“He’s making it; I’m eating it,” Giannis joked.
Stavros said he went to the Institute of Culinary Education where he worked as a waiter, line cook, and manager for restaurants through his studies. He then worked at Marea, a two-Michelin-star Italian restaurant in Manhattan, the Four Seasons, and Estiatorio Milos in Hudson Yards, which Stavros said was possibly the best Greek restaurant in the world.
“After all those years, having the experience on the floor and also in the kitchen, it was perfect for me,” said Stavros.
Giannis said the two decided to start their own restaurant when they had trouble finding food like what they had when growing up in Greece. He said lettuce did not belong in an authentic Greek salad nor in a pita, and he just couldn’t locate lemon potatoes that were lemony enough.
“We couldn’t find authentic Greek food like we made it back home,” Giannis said, so they opened up Greek Brothers.
When it came to building the menu, they said they wanted to keep to simple, quality, traditional Greek food. Giannis said the handmade moussaka and pastitsio are their mother’s recipe, and around half of the desserts, like the handmade baklava and chocolate cake, are hers as well.
“You have to follow the recipe. You can’t change it,” he said.
There are some non-traditional items on the menu, like the burger, but Giannis said they chose to give it a bit of a Greek twist by adding spicy feta on top. Overall, the two tried to stick to a handful of dishes they could be proud of, Stavros said.
“We focus on the [dishes] that are gonna represent us best,” said Giannis. “You do it the right way, and that’s how you separate yourself from everything else.”
He also said they try to ship as many products from Greece as possible.
“If you try a bagel in a different state, it doesn’t taste the same,” he said.
It’s the same concept with the oregano, pita, and feta they import from Greece. They even import Greek water and sell it by the bottle. According to the menu, 70% of their ingredients are imported from Greece, but Stavros said he reckons it’s closer to 80%.
Giannis said the two started thinking about opening another location when many of their Franklin Square customers asked the brothers to open a restaurant closer to them. He said they had many customers from the North Shore — Port Washington, Roslyn, and Manhasset — and would even see people from Westchester and Eastern Suffolk.
Salmon with lemon potatoes and pita.Photo Provided by Greek Brothers
Giannis said their goal with the second restaurant is simple.
“Our mission is to deliver Greece here.”