Being John Curtas

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As you know, ELV and his staff are more than a little disdainful about Greek restaurant food. From coast to coast, it is relentlessly mediocre, boring and trite….and almost always tastes the same. Whether you’re in a Greek diner in Connecticut, or another hackneyed, blue and white-decorated “classic” restaurant, it’s a lead-pipe cinch you’re going to get the same twenty recipes overcooked exactly the same way. (Greek restaurants never met an overcooked piece of fish or meat they didn’t love.)

The reason for this is because, like Indian and Mexican food, the cooks of these cuisines have been, by and large, from the lower socio-economic stratum of their home countries. They came to America to survive and prosper, but not necessarily to create or strictly follow the tenants of the cuisine they remember. In such a way did the doner kebab become that hideous gyro meat featured in Greek joints from Bangor to Malibu, and sorry souvlakis the food Americans most associate with the birthplace of Western civilization.

All of this is about to change. The minute it opens in the Cosmo on December, 15th, Estiatorio Milos will be the best Greek restaurant in Las Vegas, and probably the second best Greek restaurant in the country….right behind the original Milos in Manhattan…and most probably the third best Greek restaurant on the North American continent…. right behind the New York location and the original in Montreal.

Our interview with Spiliadis will appear in next week’s Las Vegas Weekly, but in the meantime, we thought you’d like to see where a couple of Greek gods (with loads of major hair) had lunch when the aforesaid interview was taking place. Why at MOzen, of course…where we chowed down on Indian (dots, not feathers) food, of course.

Turns out Costas is something of a connoisseur of Indian food, and like ELV, considers the tandoori, butter chicken and assorted other highly spiced fare at MOzen to be some of the best he’s ever eaten. It all went down beautifully with one of the great food-focused conversations we’ve ever had, and ended with a tiny sampling of Gianni Santin’s pristine desserts — that were so good we almost forgot about how great Greek food is about to get around here.

ESTIATORIO MILOS

In The Cosmopolitan Hotel and Casino

3708 Las Vegas, Blvd. South

Las Vegas, NV 89109

702.698.7930

www.estiatoriomilos.com