Summary

A six-week series featuring soup recipes and cozy vibes, plus side dishes and toppings, to get us all through the winter.

But among them, Kaia stands out as the total package. The food here levels up, delicious, lovely to look at, and stimulating for both appetite and mind. It expands upon Greek cuisine, cleverly playing with tradition, updating it, but also keeping it pristine when the moment for that is right. Executive chef Felipe Gonalves previously worked at Menton, and it shows. The finesse of fine dining is on the plate, as well as fun, creativity, risk, and respect.

An illustration in one dish: spanakopita, which Xenia culinary director Brendan Pelley has been serving in some form since launching Greek pop-up Pelekasis a decade ago. He grew up eating the dish at family dinners. It was on his menu when he was chef de cuisine at Michael Schlows Doretta Taverna, which started serving upscale Greek cuisine just a moment too soon. Now, at Kaia, there can be TikTok-trendy lines out front and the restaurant is always booked (make reservations). And here, still, is spanakopita.

Kaia takes the homey spinach and phyllo pie and turns it on its side, literally. It arrives a golden-brown rectangle, striations of green and yellow visible at the ends, all dressed up for a fancy dinner on top. Its strewn with snipped herbs and pretty edible blossoms. The dish wraps eggs, leeks, and preserved black truffle into the mix. A bite is a journey, from crisp, shattering layers of dough to billowy, warm interior, almost like a quiche. Its comfort food and eye candy at the same time.

I think of the spanakopita as the heart of a meal here, the anchor that supports a rotating cast of crudo, meze, and whole fish dishes. It is the only given. After that, its time to play.

There are sna

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