Greco: One Hundred Bottles of Ouzo and a Kitchen That Remembers Athens

The saganaki arrives in a shallow copper pan, its surface bubbling and golden, a thin crust of flour giving way to molten cheese that stretches when you pull it apart with a fork. A squeeze of lemon cuts through the richness. Somewhere behind you, a waiter uncorks a bottle of Assyrtiko, and through the open terrace doors, the park outside Grinberg 25 is turning that particular shade of green that northern Tel Aviv does so well in spring. The music is Greek, the laughter is loud, and the table is already crowded with small plates you did not order but somehow arrived anyway. Welcome to Greco.

Zviki Eshet spent four decades falling in love with Greece before he built his first restaurant. Together with Chef Eliav Goldenberg, he traveled the country from Crete to Thessaloniki, eating in village tavernas, learning from grandmothers and fishermen, and importing not just recipes but the actual equipment used to prepare them. The Greco Hospitality Group now operates seven locations across Israel, but the kosher branch at Ezorei Chen remains the quiet, residential sibling: a taverna tucked into a park compound in the north of the city, far from the beachfront bustle of the original.