Greek islands call

Kirk and Denise Hatzidakis were so inspired by their honeymoon in the Greek islands that they wanted to share more than just pictures when they returned home. So they decided to open a restaurant to showcase the foods they had enjoyed in island villages scattered across the Aegean. They opened the restaurant in May, naming it Xios (pronounced HEE-os, with the "X" sounding like the "ch" in "challah") after one of the islands.

Romantic memories are only part of the reason the couple chose Xios. As it happens, Kirk's parents hail from the island, and both are experts in their native cuisine. His father, George Hatzidakis, boasts a culinary career spanning 42 years and half the globe, from Xios to San Francisco, where he has owned two restaurants. Kirk's mother, Julia, has been baking since childhood, mastering the temperamental medium of phyllo pastry. With such a pair working in the kitchen, the fledgling restaurant inherited an instant pedigree.

The genial Kirk Hatzidakis, who generally assumes the role of host (helped weekends by Denise, who has a day job outside the restaurant), is apt to encourage you to make a meal of mezethes, tapas-like small dishes meant for sharing. It's a good idea to heed his advice, because more than anything else it's the extensive selection of these light dishes that sets Xios apart from most Greek restaurants.

As you might expect, the seafood options are especially appealing. Along with a first-rate rendition of calamari, temptations include mythia (steamed mussels in an herbed cream sauce) and garides saganaki (a Greek island variation on the familiar saganaki theme featuring shrimp smothered in tomatoes and feta). Garides with ouzo, starring jumbo shrimp in an ambrosial tomato sauce accented with dill and the anise notes of ouzo, is definitely a keeper.

For most of us, whose experience with Greek restaurants has been limited to those specializing in mainland cuisine, vegetarian and meat mezethes will be more familiar territory. Dolmades are textbook, the grape leaves rolled tight around a filling of mint-fragrant rice. So is flaming saganaki, though it isn't delivered with the rousing cry of "Opa!" as at many Greek restaurants. And the layers of phyllo on Julia Hatzidakis' rendition of spanakopita are as crisp and golden brown as can be. (Her baklava is good, too, but ask for it without the chocolate sauce garnish when you order).

Among all these well-known vegetarian dishes, the one you're least likely to be familiar with is a feta-stuffed eggplant specialty called melitzana iman. You'll definitely want to make its acquaintance.

Xios' version of the eggplant dip melitzanosalata is brighter and fresher than most, with nearly as much tomato and scallion as eggplant in the mix. Skordalia, on the other hand, delivers so little of the dish's defining garlic flavor that it comes off as uncharacteristically bland. The same can be said of avgolemono soup that delivers less than the expected brightness of lemon.

Other than these two dishes, the only disappointment I encountered was pork souvlaki, which was dry when I tried it. I found loukaniko psito, a fennel- and thyme-seasoned sausage made locally to an old Hatzidakis family recipe, much more to my liking.

Among the half dozen available entrees, the cinnamon-tinged moussaka and pork cutlets with mushrooms in a Greek lemon sauce were fine. But it's clearly the meze experience that defines Xios.

In fact, one of the most carefree romantic dates I can think of is to order one of the Village Specials, generous meze samplers served for two. Add a sampler of three Greek wines for a $10 surcharge, then order a bottle of your favorite. Take your time nibbling and sipping the feast, relaxing against a backdrop Greek folk music and softly contemporary decor in shades of dove gray and Aegean blue. Imagine you're on a Greek island honeymoon of your own.

With an eye to retirement, George Hatzidakis is training Jason Heisler, whom the family recruited from Bloomsbury Bistro, to take over as executive chef. Not that you're likely to notice that anyone is in training -- in the kitchen, at least. It's another story in the dining room, where much of the wait staff is still learning the ropes.

But for the most part, Xios offers a tour of the Greek islands that is as exciting as it is consistently rewarding. Smooth sailing, you might say.