James Paloumbis prefers that customers arrive to his new restaurant in South Williamsburg by boat.
“You can come via ferry,” he told BK Reader. “Then you feel like Odysseus — you feel like an Ancient Greek that used to travel on a boat to go for dinner when cars were not an option, just horses.”
Feeling like an Ancient Greek is appropriate: Paloumbis’s new restaurant PSARAKI, named after the Greek word for “little fish,” is not just serving up traditional Greek food. It’s also situated perfectly to approximate the experience of being on a Greek island right here in Brooklyn, only yards from the South Williamsburg ferry stop.
“I think it's very rustic,” Paloumbis said.
Paloumbis is originally from New York, but he spent his childhood in Athens; his father is from Kefalonia and his mother is from Kozani, and he moved back and forth between the U.S. and Greece while growing up.
Paloumbis has been in the New York hospitality scene for the last 28 years. Up until recently, he was mostly doing consulting, disenchanted by the daily grind of restaurant work; but when he happened across the waterfront location, he knew it was time to try to mobilize.
“I always said, if I ever found a space that's on the water, I would do an authentic Greek seafood place, [with] recipes through generations of my family," he said.
Reinvigorated by the beauty of the location, Paloumbis is all in. He says he has been on location for up to 22 hours a day over the past five months, readying his restaurant for the July 17 opening.
A major twist on the menu is the use of rice flour for his fried food dishes, making PSARAKI an early adopter of gluten-free Greek food.
“I believe I'm the first person to do this in New York,” Paloumbis said. “I think a lot of people are gonna' show up afterward saying, ‘Oh no, I did it first.’ Nah, I did it.”
The resulting fried fare is light and crunchy, more tempura-style than traditional greasy fried zucchini.
The menu will rotate with the seasons, but right now, it’s geared mostly toward seafood. The Fisherman’s Table Experience ($74/person) exemplifies PSARAKI’s range. It starts with a veritable onslaught of appetizers, including four very tasty greek spreads, which includes the must-try tarama, a fluffy Greek mousse made from blended caviar.
There’s some flair to table presentation: PSARAKI’s classic Greek salad is made more exciting by a dusting of oregano crushed in front of you, and the saganaki cheese course is covered in rum, then blowtorched tableside. (Left to their own devices, the flames would continue to burn, so they are extinguished by a liberal squeeze of lemon, leaving a cheese that is sugar-encrusted, with surprising depth of flavor.)
The spanakopita, which the menu stipulates is made with grandmother’s pride, is another menu standout, made with layers of delicate filo pastry and delectable feta. After the sides have all arrived, the Fisherman's Experience concludes with three types of seafood: branzino, octopus and squid, all simply grilled over a wood fire.
Dessert is baklava, cinnamon-y and sweet, or sour cherries in their own juice atop authentic Greek yogurt, best enjoyed as the sun sets over Manhattan.
And to top it all off, at the end of the meal, servers bring over a postcard that you can fill out to a loved one of your choice that they will mail for you — a perfect opportunity to gloat about the thoroughly-Greek experience you had, right on the edge of Brooklyn.
PSARAKI is located at 420 Kent Ave, and open Mon–Thurs from 5–10pm, Fri from 5–11pm, Sat from 12am–11pm, and Sun from 12am–9pm.
