Popular Sarasota restaurant for genuine Greek cuisine opens new location.
A popular Greek restaurant on Sarasota’s St. Armands Circle has expanded to another of the area’s busiest dining and shopping districts.
Blu Kouzina is now open at 295 N. Cattlemen Road Unit 4 in University Town Center, adjacent to Ford’s Garage in the West District at UTC. It is the second area location for Blu Kouzina, which also has a restaurant on St. Armands Circle at 25 N. Boulevard of the Presidents that was opened by Effie and Dennis Tsakiris in 2015.
The restaurant since has new owners in John Atanassov and business partner Joel King. Atanassov said the new location was an enticing opportunity both to be part of the surrounding UTC area, and the space itself.
“Obviously it’s a growing area, and they’re doing a great job and there’s a lot of different attractions, with Mote Marine, with all this stuff.” Atanassov said. “But it gave us an opportunity to do a great concept, inside-outside dining with a full bar, which we don’t have at St. Armands. We have about 200 seats here, so a much larger location in a great area.”
What is Blu Kouzina’s menu like?
Blu Kouzina’s menu features entrees such as roasted lemon chicken, moussaka (an oven-baked dish made with layered potatoes and topped with a béchamel sauce that can be made with ground beef or vegetarian), grilled whole branzino, and lamb. It also offers a variety of pita wraps, mezes (appetizers), soups, salads and dips.
As previously mentioned, the new location has a full bar, with an 11 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, bar-only happy hour. Of the seating for around 200 people, about 60% of that is indoors, and 40% on the outdoor patio.
What else is going on in University Town Center’s restaurant scene?
Blu Kouzina joins such other recently opened restaurants in UTC as Japanese eatery Zōtō and chef’s counter Yūgen — both created by the same James Beard Award-nominated restaurateurs, Jimmy and Johnny Tung — and Mama G’s German Bakery & Coffeehouse, which has other Sarasota locations on North and South Tamiami Trail.Upcoming additions to UTC’s dining scene include the Ohio-based Kitchen Social, “serving scratch-made comfort food with a modern twist”; Miami Beach-founded pizzeria Mister O1 Extraordinary Pizza; and Olivia and On Swann, two acclaimed Tampa restaurants from the same award-winning restaurateur Chris Ponte.
Blu Kouzina’s UTC location is open 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. For more information, call 941-377-0050 or visit blukouzina.com.
Email entertainment reporter Jimmy Geurts at jimmy.geurts@heraldtribune.com. Support local journalism by subscribing.
Dining and Cooking