Anémi: George Kalosis Brought His Own Modern Greece to Astoria

“I didn’t want another traditional Greek restaurant with the expected blue and white aesthetic. I wanted something contemporary, a little mysterious and unexpected, while still keeping the warmth and soul that make Greek hospitality so special.”

The room takes its colors from the Greek landscape: terracotta, olive and natural stone, the tones of a sunset in Greece in September.

Anémi means breeze. For George it is the September breeze after the intensity of summer: wheat moving in the wind, the golden and orange light of the sun, and the nostalgia for a season that has just passed.

“In a way, the name also reflects my personality because I’m always moving, always thinking about what comes next.”

George Kalosis

“Looks modern, feels like home” is how George sums up the philosophy behind Anémi. He is hands-on with all of it: the atmosphere, the design, the food, the cocktails, the music, the events and, most of all, the guest experience.

“You never know what the person sitting at your table is celebrating or what brought them to Anémi that evening. It could be a promotion, an engagement, an important announcement, a birthday, or simply two friends who haven’t seen each other in a long time. If we have the opportunity to become part of that moment and make it a little more memorable, that is what hospitality means to me.”

His own rule for it is simple: “Treat your guests the way you would want to be treated.”

The kitchen starts from recipes deeply rooted in Greek tradition and serves them in a more contemporary way. The Fetalo takes loukoumades, the Greek doughnuts, in a new direction: filled with feta and Anémi’s own cheese blend, served with Greek honey and sesame. The charred eggplant is his mother’s recipe, reinterpreted.

“Even when the presentation changes, the memory and emotion behind the food remain.”

For the first anniversary, Anémi hosted an invite-only dinner for editors, creators and people from hospitality. Each invitation came with a little blue Greek eye, a mati pin, the team’s secret signal for the guests of the Secret Table.

I was excited to check out the place and the food, but also really excited to meet colleagues from the media world and see what connections and alliances we could make. As I was walking up, I met Shaye Weaver, who used to be an editor at Time Out and now runs No Sleep Club NYC, one of my favorite newsletters for the city’s events. We walked in together, and right away I saw familiar faces and was greeted by the marvelous Maggie Marsico, who organized the evening.

It was top-notch organization: the little envelopes that were sent to us, how clear everything felt, the follow-up, the way she introduced everyone and made sure everyone got the best out of the night. Extremely professional, and one of the best hosts I’ve seen in a long time.

There’s a big wall there that says: I ask God, what is Greece? And he said, my home. The more the evening went on, the more at home we felt. And home is not something refined, corporate or uptight. Home is where we can relax, be ourselves, and even be wild and free if we want to. That is what the evening unfolded into.

The food was excellent, and a lot has been written about the food at Anémi, so I want to write about the atmosphere. It started with a wonderful dancer, dancing to live percussion, and she was so infectious that the next thing you knew, people were literally dancing on the tables, like at a wedding, and we had only just started. We started with dancing on chairs and tables. How about that?

And then it just kept coming. The festive fiery lights came. Then George started smashing what seemed like hundreds of dishes on the floor. As soon as that ended, he appeared with laser beams coming out of his fingers, and by then you didn’t know whether you should be eating or dancing.

There was a beautiful bar outside and a beautiful photo booth for everyone to take pictures. It was a mix of birthday party and wedding energy, which is exactly what home feels like at its best. Making friends was so easy.

That is my main impression of this place. It brought people together, helped them open up, brought them joy and connected them. And this is what we love at The Juicy Times.