{"id":57181,"date":"2026-11-13T23:40:15","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T23:40:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/57181\/"},"modified":"2026-11-13T23:40:15","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T23:40:15","slug":"greektown-restaurant-spitiko-taverna-survives-streetscape-construction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/57181\/","title":{"rendered":"Greektown restaurant Spitiko Taverna survives streetscape construction"},"content":{"rendered":"

DETROIT (WXYZ) \u2014 After a year of construction, the Greektown streetscape is complete, just in time for the holiday season.<\/p>\n

For one family-owned restaurant on Monroe Street, that milestone also marks the end of a challenging first year.<\/p>\n

WATCH VIDEO REPORT FROM 7 NEWS DETROIT’S TONY GEFTOS BELOW:<\/p>\n

Greektown restaurant Spitiko Taverna celebrates 1 year as Monroe Street construction ends<\/p>\n

Spitiko Taverna opened shortly before construction began. The restaurant’s owners endured the work outside their doors while building a business centered on authentic Greek food and a the family’s dream of operating a restaurant in the heart of Greektown.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpitiko in Greek means like home,\u201d co-owner Efthymia \u201cEffie\u201d Melistas said.<\/p>\n

\"OPA<\/p>\n

Tony Geftos<\/p>\n

7 News Detroit Reporter Tony Geftos sits down to sample the family recipes at Spitiko Taverna with co-owner Efthymia \u201cEffie\u201d Melistas.<\/p>\n

Melistas said the restaurant was designed to give customers the cozy feeling of being welcomed into someone’s home. But opening in Greektown was especially meaningful for her father and co-owner, George Melistas.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, it’s my dad’s dream because we have also another restaurant in Eastpointe,\u201d she said. \u201cHe was like, \u2018You know what? I want to be in Greektown,\u2019 and I was like, \u2018OK, let’s do that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

That family connection carries into the kitchen.<\/p>\n

\"GEORGE<\/p>\n

Tony Geftos<\/p>\n

7 News Detroit’s Tony Geftos gets a quick Greek cooking lesson from George Melistas, co-owner of Spitiko Taverna<\/p>\n

George Melistas prepared a spread that included calamari, souvlaki and pork chops as 7 News Detroit’s Tony Geftos joined the family behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re gonna make some right now calamari and some appetizers,\u201d George Melistas said. \u201cI got us some souvlakis in the charbroil, and I have some, uh, pork chops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"OPA<\/p>\n

Tony Geftos<\/p>\n

“Opa!” Flaming cheese called Saganaki is served tableside at Spitiko Taverna<\/p>\n

The meal continued at the table, where the menu included charbroiled octopus, dolmades, tarama and freshly prepared calamari.<\/p>\n

After weathering a year of construction, the family behind Spitiko Taverna is looking ahead to welcoming more customers to Monroe Street and sharing the Greek food and hospitality behind its name.<\/p>\n

AI DISCLAIMER
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DETROIT (WXYZ) \u2014 After a year of construction, the Greektown streetscape is complete, just in time for the holiday season. For one family-owned restaurant on Monroe Street, that milestone also marks the end of a challenging first year. WATCH VIDEO REPORT FROM 7 NEWS DETROIT’S TONY GEFTOS BELOW: Greektown restaurant Spitiko Taverna celebrates 1 year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4371,7664,1133,3408,7,8,4372],"class_list":["post-57181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-restaurants","tag-7-action-news","tag-7-news-detroit","tag-detroit","tag-metro-detroit","tag-restaurant","tag-restaurants","tag-wxyz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dnc\/117611774907475062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/restaurants\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}