PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS VON HOLLE
It’s 5 o’clock on a dreary Friday afternoon. An early bird in a true night owl neighborhood, I’m the only customer at Fillo (pronounced fee-low), the European bakery turned modern Greek restaurant at the corner of Race and 15th streets in Over-the-Rhine.
As I wait for my lamb chops, the cook calls out from the kitchen’s small window, “They’re going to be good!” As he sets the four perfectly charred lamb tomahawks in front of me (one of the benefits of being the sole diner: direct-from-kitchen service), I second his prediction. We’re both right—the lamb chops are rare, juicy, and fatty; sublime with a good squeeze of the accompanying lemon wedge. Beaming, the cook tells me that the lamb chops are thrown directly on the grill to lock in the juices before being hit with a simple seasoning of salt, pepper, and oregano.
I later found out that the proud cook is Evan Papanikolaou, Fillo’s owner/chef. Having moved to the Queen City from central Greece at the age of 12, he’s spent most of his life in the restaurant industry and is a second-generation Cincinnati restauranteur—his father opened a Pasquale’s pizza franchise in Clifton shortly after moving his family to the U.S.
Greece, while small, has a diverse array of regional cuisines. The islands have their bountiful seafood, while Papanikolaou’s central region specializes in grilled meats. And while the aforementioned lamb chops are perhaps the best expression of that tradition, nearly everything at Fillo benefits from a quick hit of fire. Starting with the bread. A favorite appetizer from a previous (less solitary) visit was a simple preparation of hearty Blue Oven bread slices, striped with grill marks and flecked with sesame seeds, served with a downright buttery extra virgin olive oil.
Those ubiquitous grill marks are even found on the pita bread, which gets a serious upgrade from its chargrilled finish as well as a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of oregano. We order the pita bread with a generous bowl of tzatziki, which is made from scratch and enriched by a sheen of that ubiquitous olive oil. Much like Midas, the olive oil here tends to gild everything it touches.
Most of Fillo’s menu is composed of mezedes, the small, shareable plates that serve as the binder to a great Greek meal. Take the saganaki, for example. True to Greek tradition, Fillo’s version is served without a tableside flambé. But what the dish lacks in spectacle, it makes up for in spectacular flavor. The lemon-kissed vlahotyri (a tangy sheep’s milk cheese native to Greece) has a smoky, pizza parlor flavor that lingers long after the last bite.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS VON HOLLE
Other dishes, like the Ntakos Salad, are much less familiar, though no less authentic. The salad (which originated on the Greek island of Crete) starts with a puck-shaped rusk of barley. The hard rusk gets a good soaking to soften it, then gets topped with olive oil, vinegar, onions, feta, capers, and kalamata olives. The oil, vinegar, and various juices flavor the barley, adding texture to the colorful, pungent salad.
This layering of ingredients and flavors also defines Fillo’s most filling entrée: moussaka. The classic dish appears on several local Mediterranean menus, but for pure comfort, Fillo’s combination of eggplant, potato, tomato-y beef ragu sauce, and béchamel can’t be beat. The veritable goulash of ingredients meld together beautifully, while each retains its identity, as in any great medley.
While Fillo honors Greek traditions, it certainly isn’t constrained by them. The menu at this self-described “modern” Greek restaurant leaves plenty of room for invention. Such novelty is perhaps best represented in the grilled shrimp entrée. It’s a deceptively simple name for a playful, complex dish. The shrimp, which arrive at the restaurant whole (heads and all), are cleaned and de-veined daily before taking a bath in a lemon juice and olive oil marinade. They then get served over pesto couscous, bringing together bold flavors from across the Mediterranean.
PHOTOGRAPH BY CHRIS VON HOLLE
The cocktail menu creatively infuses Greek flavors into classic drinks. That’s why my Baklava Negroni came with a splash of baklava syrup, adding a honeyed sweetness to the tart blend of gin, Campari, and passion fruit. The wine menu is composed almost entirely of Greek varietals, and there are two Greek lagers on offer. After all, what’s a modern Greek restaurant without a well-rounded list of modern Greek drinks?
Proof that Fillo still has some bakery muscles left to flex, its three baklava rolls are spiced with cloves and cinnamon, then sprinkled with honey and walnuts. This is one of the few baklavas I’ve had where the honey is demure enough to take a backseat to the spices. If only all of them were this way.
Even though Fillo has been operating as a full-service restaurant for just a few months, it already feels like a neighborhood staple. The changing patterns of that foot traffic necessitated Fillo’s shift from European bakery to restaurant. The bakery’s kitchen, I’m told, had the bones of a working restaurant kitchen from the beginning, in case Fillo ever needed to fall back on “Plan B.” When you work in the restaurant business for as long as Papanikolaou has, you learn how to roll with the punches. And while I’m never happy to hear that a “Plan A” hasn’t worked out, it seems that with this new iteration of Fillo, he has truly come home.
Fillo Greek Restaurant
1505 Race St., Over-the-Rhine, (513) 873-1995, fillogreekbakeshop.com
Hours
Dinner Wed 4:30–9 p.m., Thurs–Sat 4:30–10 p.m., Sun 4–9 p.m.
Prices
$8 (Bread Basket)–$48 (Lamb Chops)
Credit Cards
All major
The Takeaway
Neighborhood European bakery swaps pastries for dazzling Greek dinner menu.
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