It’s been eight years since restaurateur and actor Vassiliki Ellwood Yiagazis found out she was Jewish.
She had no idea she had Jewish heritage until her birth father investigated the family tree in 2016. It turns out her grandmother’s family was named Levi, Sephardic Jewish people who lived in England and all converted to Episcopalian before World War I.
“When I found out it totally made sense,” she says. “I’ve always had an affinity for Jewish culture.”
Nearly a decade later, in January, she opened Smoke & Honey, a Mid-City breakfast and lunch spot serving what she calls Greek and Jewish soul food. Her flavorful recipe for matzo ball soup came from a close friend’s mother.
Growing up, the Greek side of her family always dominated. She was born in Athens, where her British mother and Greek father ran an English-style pub. She grew up speaking both Greek and English. Seeking respite from the city, the family moved to the close commuter island of Aegina.
Her parents divorced when she was 7, and when her mom remarried, it was to a Greek-American living in Maryland, where Ellwood Yiagazis spent the rest of her formative years.
An actor and filmmaker, Ellwood Yiagazis moved to New Orleans early in the pandemic, after the film industry in Los Angeles shut down. She pivoted, put on her chef’s hat and decided to bring authentic Athenian food to New Orleans, first at the Mid-City farmer’s market and also in a series of pop-ups around town.
She asked her friend Lauren Lynch for advice about opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Lynch owns and operates bars and restaurants in New York City, including Harlem Public, which she opened in 2012. She’s a frequent visitor to New Orleans, and the two became business partners in Smoke & Honey.
Formerly the home of Piece of Meat, the airy, 40-seat restaurant has red tiled walls and cedar wood finishes, with wraparound outdoor seating under an awning. The renovation was accomplished in just five weeks.
“I want it to feel like my Greek island home: inviting,” Ellwood Yiagazis says.
She developed the recipes and menu herself. Both gyros are served dressed Athens-style, which means a handful of seasoned french fries in the mix. The breakfast gyro features imported Greek pita wrapped around halloumi cheese, eggs, bacon, tzatziki, red onions and tomatoes with fries. Diners can choose pork, chicken or vegetables to fill the lunch gyro, and the pork has bits of crispy belly mixed in with tender roasted shoulder meat. It also can be served as a deconstructed gyro on a platter with salad on the side.
The Village salad is one of the owner’s favorites. It has a simple mix of chopped tomatoes, cucumber and red onion capped with a slab of imported feta, all dressed in an oregano-seasoned red wine vinaigrette.
The Lambeaux is another winner, with tender sliced leg of lamb slathered with whipped feta, onion and garlic jam and vegetables on John Gendusa French bread. The bourekas are a perfect snack of spinach and feta in crispy phyllo dough. The menu also has New York-style bagels with a schmear or smoked salmon and a vegan pistachio chocolate chip cookie for a sweet bite.
An expanded menu is coming soon, and it will include house-smoked brisket and pastrami sandwiches.
On the drinks side, the restaurant recently got its liquor license and is serving mimosas, margaritas, Greek beer, Mediterranean-focused wine and retsina, a special type of Greek white wine.
Smoke & Honey also is a satellite location for Coffee Science, an inventive cafe based about a mile away on South Broad Street near Tulane Avenue. Coffee Science baristas run their full menu of standard and creative coffee and tea drinks here, too.
In between taking care of her guests, Ellwood Yiagazis is back to acting. Most recently she spent a month in Arkansas filming “Violent Ends,” an indie movie with a cast that includes Billy Magnussen, Alexandra Shipp and Nick Stahl. She says while she loves to act, she’s committed to running her own restaurant full time.
“It’s really important to me to put in 150% to makes this work,” she says.
