Anastasia Balezdrova
An old stove warming the front of the restaurant in winter, windows painted in different colours, signs of customers on the walls, posters, placards, and strands of dried spices, pots and pans hanging in the kitchen. This is how the restaurant with the strange name "The waitress disappears behind the curtain" looks like.
Actually, there is no waitress. The entire staff is composed of men who are friends. Situated on the promenade in Piraeus, in eastern Thessaloniki Bay, overlooking the sea and the Mount Olympus in the clearest days, it distinguishes from the other restaurants by name, decoration, and especially by the entirely different and very tasty cuisine.
Probably you all like traditional Greek cuisine or at least what is served at most taverns. But have you tried shrimp with okra, octopus with chick peas, sirloin steak of tuna, squid cooked in its ink, sea jerky, salad, sprinkled with poppy seeds and sour apple, cock meat with red sauce and homemade noodles or the most delicious spaghetti with lobster meat?
This is a small part of the specialties you can try at the restaurant of Dimitris Gatsos - chef not by vocation, but by recognition. "I'm from the Evia Peninsula and came to Thessalonica to study at the Academy of captains and marine engineers in Nea Mihaniona. I graduated and started working on ships, but I did not like it. You feel very lonely there and I'm too social for that." Having descended from the deck, Dimitris worked in theaters, where he made decors for 10 years. "We were on tour in Egypt once and I went to Hal al Khalili market in Cairo, not where the tourists go but sideways. I found myself on a little square, where there was a cafe with white walls. There were five worn out couches inside and about 10 old men were sitting on them, smoking hookahs and playing backgammon. The weather was very hot, and the café was rather grim inside. Suddenly a ney sounded just in the silence that was reigning. Then I decided that I want to do exactly that. "
Since then, Dimitris has had four restaurants. And all have developed well.
What was the guiding philosophy when you decided to open this restaurant?
My idea of the restaurant I would like to visit is guiding me in my choice. I would not like one good and five mediocre meals. Nor do I like master or gourmet kitchen. I seek the pure, simple and quality products. I am interested the customer to ask what olive oil or cheese we use or why we serve the shrimp in one way or another. The atmosphere in the restaurant is very important to me too. I do not want the customers to feel tight and somewhat formal. I want them to feel comfortable, to talk and become friends.
Tell us about the name of the restaurant, which is not a name in fact. How did you come to it?
This is one of the most common questions all customers ask. There are two stories about the name. One of the waiters tells a fictional story that I was a magician in Manhattan and I was in love with a waitress. However, she worked in a restaurant of the mafia and I was not able to get close to her. So, according to the story, I went there and made a trick and the waitress disappeared and never appeared again. I also disappeared, then we found each other and we got married. It is funny that many customers believe this story.
The truth is that it was difficult to find a name because we did not want to think of something trivial. Someone told me to close my eyes, go to the library, open a book, put my finger on the text, and choose it as a name. It was a Hemingway’s book and the text was "the waitress behind the curtain." So, the restaurant got its name.
You serve dishes here that we find in other restaurants. However, there are some different dishes. How does your spirit help you in choosing what to prepare differently?
Yes, of course, it helps me. In fact, this is what I do. For example, in winter I will cook tripe soup the same way my grandmother in the village cooked it. Or soup with goat meat like the one I tried on Crete. When the weather is nice and I get good shrimps from the market, why not cook spaghetti with shrimp to enjoy them?
The restaurant’s decoration is interesting too. How did you make it? Have you decided to decorate in this way or it happened bit by bit?
I do not plan anything in terms of layout and decoration as in the two previous restaurants I had. I leave it to chance. The only thing I am keen on is the kitchen to be open so that customers can see what we are doing in it. I hang some kitchen utensils here and there and that's all.
At first, this restaurant has neither front nor rear part. We differentiated them with what we found in antique shops. When we had to paint the chairs, we looked at what paints we had and painted them. A little green paint, a little red, we hung things and the restaurant gradually formed. Then, the customers began bringing different things too. They participate in the decoration and become part of it in this way.
How would you define your customers?
Most of our customers are regular and some of them follow us from the previous restaurants. We have customers not just from Thessaloniki and the surrounding villages but from other cities too - from Kastoria, Xanthi, and Athens. They call and say they are on their way and will be here for lunch and give their orders for lunch.
Our customers are diverse in age, occupation and interests. They are young and elderly people, doctors, lawyers, bankers, peddlers and even former prisoners. They are quite colourful and even I wonder sometimes. The music is also odd. Ethnic, psychedelic and classical music sounds along with rock. Some time ago, an elderly couple came who said they come here because they like listening to reggae.
Has the crisis affected you?
I would not say that the crisis has affected us very seriously. I am pleased and even think that we have more work. I have not heard a complaint from any client so far. But this is the result of our efforts. Last year, we removed 12 tables to accommodate the number of customers to the capacity of the cuisine and serve them faster and better.
How many years have you been working as a chef?
I have not finished a school, if you mean this. I like cooking from a very early age. I watched my mother and grandmother cooking and the things I am cooking are after their recipes. I do not know another way of cooking, I have not read books. Of course, I am looking at new recipes. However, I think things about cooking are exaggerated nowadays. They figure out different things just to extend the duration of cooking shows.
I know it is a matter of expression, but I like simple and delicious dishes. I can not imagine anything more delicious than a fish that I bought from the fisherman's boat early in the morning, well grilled with the right dose of olive oil. You will not have such a good result whatever sauce you add.
The difficulty in cooking is to take out things, no to add them. You can add 100 ingredients in a dish, if you wish but only one can give the dish everything it needs. I serve the anchovies fried and "extinguished" with vinegar, no matter how oddly it may seem. I offer what is best in my opinion.
What is important to me is the quality of the ingredients and I never make compromises in this regard. I do not mind the price if the product is fresh and of quality.
The people I work with have the same philosophy. We want our meals to be as traditional and usual as possible. In other words, we do not cook to impress the customers with the first bite. Even statistics show that you understand the taste of the dish after the seventh bite.
What are the biggest influences in your way of cooking?
The influences are mostly from southern Greece and especially Crete. I like the dishes like the women in the villages cook them. Whenever I go to a new place, I want to get to know the local cuisine, because I think there is no better than the traditional dishes the mothers cook for their families with love.
What do you think makes the people choose a dish?
Our choice of food is related to how we grew up. If you have no memories because you grew up with burgers at fast food restaurants, you will not be able to understand the taste of good food. The word "nostimo" (delicious) contains the word "nostos" (longing), the memory of what our mother cooked. The biggest recognition for me is when people think and ask how we cooked a meal and when they continue to come because they like the food.
If we have made you a bit curious, you can visit the restaurant in early September. And who knows - you might be lucky enough the waitress to take your order before she disappears behind the curtain.
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