Evia (pronounced EHvia) is owned by Chris and Chrysoula Balouris, who opened the restaurant five years ago. “We did it to honor the past as well as our dads and uncles,” relates Chris. “Our families came to the United States in the 1950s. My dad and uncles, who were from the island of Evia, had a restaurant down the street from where we are located. We use family recipes and make everything from scratch.”
Chris’s mother is from the southern Pelopennese, Chrysoula’s mother from Patmos and her father from Crete, so the couple was raised in the culinary tradition offered at Evia. Chris describes it as “Mediterranean food based on the Greek culinary scene, food that can truly be called Greek comfort food.” It is served in a family restaurant reminiscent of Mom’s kitchen and is open for lunch and dinner.
Chrysoula is in charge of the Evia kitchen. She and her team of 10 make all the food. “Everyone has quality control down pat,” says Chris. He adds that Greeks are very health conscious, a key feature of the Mediterranean diet. For instance, only extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) is used.
Some of your favorites are on the menu, such as lamb gyro, but there is also a pork, hand-stacked yeero. Gyro you probably know, but yeero? Actually, gyro is pronounced yeero; urban legend has it that Greek restaurateurs got tired of hearing gyro mispronounced, so they developed a yeero sandwich. Both are served on pita bread and both feature spit-roasted meat, but the pork yeero at Evia has French fries folded in. There’s moussaka, of course, topped with a silky Béchamel sauce. Saganaki starts with imported Greek Kefalograviera cheese—made of sheep’s milk, cow’s milk, goat’s milk, or a combination of these—which is then pan-fried in Greek EVOO, Greek brandy, and lemon juice. Absolutely delicious!
In addition to creating classic Greek food, the innovative chefs at Evia have come up with some delicious fusion dishes. Take Halloumi cheese fries, for instance. Made from the tangy, chewy, and creamy sheep’s-milk cheese imported from Cyprus, lightly breaded and fried they are a mouth-watering take on mozzarella sticks. Nuanced changes are made to the menu from time to time, but the favorites are always there, made in-house from scratch.
Can’t get get to Bellevue but want the Evia experience? No problem. “We perfected a business model of delivering food from the restaurant to other parts of the Pittsburgh area,” says Chris proudly. “It’s truly door to door.”
The Balouris family has gone to great lengths to bring you an authentic Greek culinary experience. But what if you are a do-it-yourselfer, an amateur cook who enjoys making your own meals, perhaps from that Greek cookbook you bought in Athens last summer? They have you covered there as well. Simply go to Salonika Imports, their Mediterranean food emporium on Smallman Street in the Strip, to stock up on all the quality ingredients you need.
Take olive oil, for instance. “You can sample the oils,” Chris says, “and you can bring your own bottle to fill if you wish. We also have different varieties of Greek olives—for instance, Kalamata olives from the Peloponnese and black olives from the central and northern regions.”
There’s also Greek yogurt, cheeses, sausage, souvlaki, and spanakopita. Pastitsio, a Greek lasagne, is available frozen in single-serve portions for a delicious grab-and-go meal if you’re pressed for time or if you just want to surprise your family for dinner.
Chris is dedicated to providing the best Greece has to offer. “I research the market daily and go to Greece yearly to sample food and find out what can be shipped here,” he relates. That’s a huge commitment, considering that 227 of Greece’s approximately 6,000 islands/islets are inhabited. Even though the traditional foods are eaten everywhere, there are little twists from area to area. Salonika Imports is the place to savor them.
Although the store is “Greek centric,” Chris makes every effort to diversify his product line to satisfy the needs of other ethnicities; an example is Bulgarian food. “There’s a Bulgarian community in Pittsburgh and we want them to come,” he explains. “We have a pepper-based spread from Bulgaria, plus Turkish cured meats, spreads, and dips. These are all products that we think are excellent.” That’s enough of a recommendation to try them.
Dine out, order in, create your own—and teach your tastebuds to enjoy the diverse foods that the Mediterranean world has to offer. Evia and Salonika Imports give you the opportunity to do it all.
Cynthia F. Weisfield is a freelance writer whose articles about art and food appear regularly in multiple publications. She is a graduate of the University of Chicago and has recently completed a biography (as yet unpublished) about noted abstract expressionist artist Sonia Gechtoff. She lives in Mt. Lebanon.