I had a long day at the trade show that I was at in the Washington D.C. area last fall. Initially, I had planned to go out to dinner with one of my former colleagues and one of his co-workers, but they ended up staying at the bar at the hotel where the show was being held to get a bite to eat there. Suddenly on my own, I was looking for something sort of unique as a place to go have dinner. I had been sort of craving Mediterranean-style food for a while and it turned out that there was a Mediterranean restaurant not too far from the hotel where I was staying. I ventured over to Vasili's Kitchen in Gaithersburg to have dinner that evening.
Since 1990, Vasilis "Bill" and Julie Hristopoulos have owned a number of restaurants in and around the Gaithersburg area. In 2001, they opened Vasili's Mediterranean Grill on Main Street in the Kentlands planned urban neighborhood in Gaithersburg. The restaurant was pretty small seating only 50 people maximum and featured primarily Greek-style food. Truly a family-run business, the Hristopoulos' sons Theo and Yianni were part of the staff at Vasili's from a young age. (The family also runs Sin & Grin Tacos in the heart of the Kentlands in Gaithersburg.)
Known as a "New Urbanism" community, the focal point of the Kentlands was Kentland Market Square, an open-air retail and restaurant district that first opened in 1988. In the mid-2010's, Market Square started to undergo a series of changes and one of the restaurants in the market - Star Diner - closed and filed for bankruptcy in 2014 citing economic hardships. Having a restaurant in the former Star Diner location was paramount for the developers who were upgrading the open-air mall. They approached the Hristopoulos family about moving their popular restaurant into the space.
Logistically, Bill Hristopoulos knew he would need to change his restaurant's concept and he brought in his nephew John Mazarakis who was the Chief Operating Officer of the Seasons Pizza chain to help with the changes and the move. Mazarakis reached out to Culinary Institute of America grad Yiannis Lucacos who was born in nearby Virginia, but was running his own restaurant in Greece - the critically acclaimed Psomi & Alta located in a suburb of Athens. A close family friend to Hristopoulos and Mazarakis, Lucacos was looking for an opportunity to come back to the U.S. and Mazarakis wanted to upgrade the menu at Vasili's to more of a well-rounded and traditional Mediterranean offerings.
The family took over the former Star Diner location in 2015 and it took over a year to transform the former 50's-style American diner into a modern rustic Mediterranean restaurant. They had hoped to open in February of 2016, but that timeline was pushed back to September of that year. They finally opened the doors to Vasili's Kitchen Fresh Mediterranean in January of 2017.
It was past 7:30 when I found out that my former colleague and his current co-worker decided to have dinner at the hotel where the trade show was being held, so I was getting sort of hungry by that time. It was about a 10 to 15 minute drive from my hotel to Vasili's Kitchen located nearly smack in the middle of the Kentlands Market Square. (see map) Parking was at a bit of a premium in the nearby lots, so I found parking on a side street just down from the restaurant.
The inside of Vasili's Kitchen had a nice modern flair to it. The long narrow dining room had the bar area up front with the kitchen opposite that. The main part of the restaurant will accommodate about 90 people - nearly 3 times the size and capacity of the original Vasili's Mediterranean Grill.
There's dining area off to the side that accommodates up to another 80 diners year round. In the colder months, they put up plastic coverings that help keep the cold out with the help of heaters on the patio. Edison lights were strung across the crossbeams and the patio had well-crafted brick flooring.
I wanted to sit at the bar, but it was at its full 16-seat capacity when I walked in. I hadn't been there more than a minute when a couple in the corner of the bar got up to leave. I got the attention of the hostess to see if I could take one of the two seats. She said, "Yeah, go ahead and grab one. I'll bring a menu over for you."
There were three bartenders who were working the bar that evening and they were constantly in motion. They ended up tag-teaming me once I sat down. After the hostess gave me a menu, one of the bartenders asked what I'd like to drink. I asked if he had a hazy IPA and he said that he didn't. He said the closest the had was an IPA from the Brookeville Beer Farm brewery located in nearby Brookeville, MD. It was only available in cans, but the beer was good and I had a couple three during my time at Vasili's.
There were so many things on the menu to choose from that I really didn't know what I wanted to eat that evening. They had a number of delicious sounding appetizers (more on that in a bit), as well as a seafood pasta entree, a bucatini pasta and shrimp dish, a large broiled crab cake with oven roasted potatoes, and slow-braised beef with parmesan scalloped potatoes. They had kebab's on the menu - chicken, pork or lamb; and they had pita sandwiches including a gyro that I contemplated getting.
The appetizers are what really got my attention as they had lamb & beef meatballs in a house-made tomato sauce, spicy calamari, fried saganaki cheese, and fresh-made hummus with pita. But there were two other things on the menu that I couldn't make up my mind to get - so I ended up ordering both.
The broiled shrimp just jumped out from the menu at me. It consisted of four butterflied jumbo shrimp cooked in a garlic/butter/olive oil/white wine mixture, then topped with herbs. It was served with a couple pieces of toast garlic bread to sop up some of the heavenly sauce that came in a small iron skillet. I made short work of the shrimp and eagerly soaked the garlic bread with the butter/garlic/oil/wine concoction to eat. I swear to god - I almost tipped the skillet up and drank the remaining broth, it was so good.
Along with the shrimp appetizer, they had a grilled octopus appetizer. I love good grilled octopus and the appetizer at Vasili's was exceptional. The chunked grilled octopus sat on a bed of pureed fava beans and was topped with a caramelized onions, crispy capers and finished with a heavy vinegar gel that was drizzled on the octopus. Oh man - was that great! But, oh! So rich! It was simply outstanding.
I had kept one of the menus thinking that - just maybe - I'd get something else. But, quite frankly, I was pretty full after the grilled shrimp and grilled octopus appetizers. I don't know if anything else on the menu at Vasili's Kitchen would have matched the appetizers that I had that evening.
I've found myself just getting a couple appetizers instead of a full entree on some recent visits to restaurants. And I'm not certain that the two appetizers I had at Vasili's Kitchen weren't the best things on the menu at the place. The broiled shrimp in the garlic/butter/white wine/olive oil combination was simply superb, and I thought the grilled octopus over pureed fava beans was even better. The three bartenders that were working the bar that evening were very busy, but they all took care of me and made me feel welcome as a single diner. If you're in the northern Washington D.C. suburbs and you're in the mood for Mediterranean food - or just looking for a good place to eat - I can't help but recommend stopping by Vasili's Kitchen.