A new Greek restaurant brings a taste of Mykonos to Mercato.
Violi opened Nov. 10 alongside the reimagined and expanded Piazza at the North Naples entertainment destination.
David Rekhson and Lucas Stoioff, co-founders of Chicago-based DineAmic Hospitality, describe their new tavern-style restaurant as fun and welcoming.
“It’s a balanced Greek concept,” Stoioff said. “By balanced, I mean it’s a place where it’s polished but it’s also casual. It’s not too high-end fine dining where it’s intimidating or not approachable. We deliberately brought it down to earth.”
Violi’s souvlaki skewers are served with marinated vegetables, tzatziki and warm pita.
DineAmic Hospitality
One could say that Stoioff provided the impetus for DineAmic to “discover” Naples because he has spent a lot of time here from Chicago since 2018.
“We bought a family home together,” he said. “My parents live here six months out of the year. My wife and our kids, we just go back and forth a lot.”
Stoioff noticed similarities between Violi’s location and Midwestern clientele in Naples and Oak Brook, the western suburb of Chicago where Violi debuted its only other location a couple of years ago.
“This environment was always so civilized,” he said. “Everyone is nice. Everyone appreciates good work and effort. There were a lot of similarities that existed between here and our home market. I’m already down here a lot, so it seemed like a good first step.”
Because the Mediterranean dining space is kind of crowded with 22 countries and different types of food, Rekhson said they really wanted to differentiate themselves with Greek cuisine.
“My wife’s Greek, so we spend a lot of time in Greece every year. Her whole family is Greek,” he said. “And, obviously, Chef Athinagoras Kostakos was born and raised in Athens.”
The business partners met Kostakos in Greece when they were launching their successful Lyra Greek restaurant five years ago in Chicagoland. “I think we made a choice when we opened Lyra to really lean in and focus on Greek, specifically,” Rekhson said. “You might see things that are a play on different things or elevated with a twist, but we are 100% Greek.”
The open-air design of Violi’s patio and bar reflects the relaxed atmosphere of a modern Greek taverna.
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Violi simply showcases the cuisine and hospitable service from Greece that simulates a vacation overseas, Kostakos said. “Coming to Naples is like coming to Greece — the climate, the people, everybody is smiling. It’s alive.
“We want to have an authentic presentation and an authentic experience. Greek food has been around for centuries, but what we are doing is bringing the most fresh and updated version of Greek food in Mykonos and the most popular items from Greece to Naples.”
While the Violi menus are similar, the Naples location has some items not in Chicago.
“We have some regional dishes that are paying homage to some of the ingredients here,” said Rekhson, singling out grouper and Gulf shrimp as representative of Florida seafood. “I’m also really excited about the produce in Florida.”
Chef Kostakos predicts the restaurant’s top dishes will include Violi’s Greek salad and branzino, which is a butterflied whole fish. “It’s an experience, in general,” he said.
The slow-roasted lamb gyro at Violi combines classic Greek flavors with a contemporary presentation.
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Violi’s menu includes souvlaki skewers, cast-iron moussaka and mezze plates, such as saganaki, charred octopus and spanakopitakia. Lamb dishes include grilled chops, shanks and slow-roasted gyros. Pasta dishes feature linguini & clams, Maine lobster spaghetti and deconstructed pastitsio with short rib ragu, graviera béchamel and black truffle. The restaurant also has a raw bar with oysters, tuna tartare, ceviche and shrimp cocktail.
Stoioff especially loves Violi’s decadent desserts, which feature Bougatsa — crispy pillows, cinnamon ice cream, semolina custard and honey caramel; Loukomades — warm donuts with salted caramel, orange anglaise, honey and chocolate coffee custard; Portokalopita — orange syrup cake with white chocolate mousse, Greek yogurt ice cream and crispy filo; and Sokolatopita — dark chocolate cake with hazelnut praline, chocolate coffee custard and salted caramel ice cream.
Grilled octopus with charred lemon is among Violi’s signature dishes, showcasing the restaurant’s Mykonos-inspired approach to Greek cuisine.
DineAmic Hospitality
The 300-seat restaurant and full bar has an abundance of seating inside the 6,500-square-foot space, as well as outside on the open-air, 1,500-square-foot patio at the edge of Mercato’s Piazza. All front-of-house finishes and colors were changed from the former longtime space of Bravo Italian Kitchen, which permanently closed this summer.
“We wanted the inside to feel like outside,” Stoioff said, noting that the design is simple and inviting.
The expansion and reopening of Mercato’s Piazza with a live stage and more outdoor seating and ambiance coincided with Violi’s launch at 9110 Strada Place, Suite 6145.
“It was something that all kind of came together as the stars started to align for us,” Rekhson said, noting that the project was delayed from an opening originally planned in October. “It all worked out beautifully.”
The restaurant launches with dinner service only. Lunch service will begin in about two weeks. Violi opens daily for happy hour at 3 p.m. with a special menu of “boukia,” or light bites.
It’s possible that another brand from DineAmic’s portfolio could be introduced in Naples, depending on Violi’s success here, Stoioff said.
“We have a lot of hopes to be able to grow, to expand it to more markets,” Rekhson said. “We really want to do more in Naples. As Luke said, he loves it here and he’s here quite a bit and we’ve really grown to love the people here in Naples. If we did more here, that would be great.”
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