Yalos Greek Taverna is open at 4338 Austin Blvd. in Island Park, serving dinner six nights a week plus Sunday brunch. The name is the Greek word for the seashore, and the restaurant says the whole concept flows from it: the hour when the boats come in, the charcoal already going, and a table that always fits one more chair.

The team

The taverna is the work of founder and managing partner Peter Kambitsis, a Greek-American restaurateur who has spent two decades building hospitality businesses across New York, from bakeries and cafes to full-service restaurants, under his Kambitsis Group and Wolves Hospitality Group. He spends part of each year in Greece, and Yalos is the restaurant he built out of those trips.

The kitchen belongs to executive chef Ari Tzerrachi, who was born and trained in Greece and graduated from Le Monde culinary school in Athens. He has been executive chef at Amylos Taverna in Astoria, Lefkes in New Jersey and, most recently, GAIA in New York. At Yalos his menus lean on fresh seafood, quality meats and seasonal vegetables, drawn from the cooking of Mediterranean coastal villages.

Philoxenia, with a wine list

The restaurant's stated house value is philoxenia, the Greek word for love of the stranger: the idea that hospitality is not a service but a duty to whoever walks in. The model, as the restaurant describes it, is the taverna you would find on a back street in Naxos or Hydra rather than a white-tablecloth Greek restaurant, with char-grilled octopus done the traditional way and hours that disappear between the first glass of wine and dessert.

Yalos runs a dinner menu, a happy hour and a Sunday brunch, and takes reservations through its website, which also handles private events and gift cards.

Hours and details

Yalos is at 4338 Austin Blvd., Island Park, and is closed Mondays. Hours are 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 4 to 11 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and noon to 10 p.m. Sunday, with brunch on the Sunday daytime side. Reservations and menus are at yalostaverna.com, and the restaurant answers at 516-208-7535.

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