Milos, from mastering seafood restaurants to luxury hotels (PREVIEW)

Costas Spiliadis is an exceptional Greek entrepreneur who has succeeded in positioning seafood at the level of an art of gourmet cuisine, building an exceptional international reputation by directly owning and operating the famous Milos restaurants all of which are serving a clientele ranging from celebrities to tycoons.

The Milos restaurants do not experiment with fine dining or sophisticated cuisine, but they focus on meticulous gastronomy, with the passion of Costas Spiliadis for perfection to extend to everything he sees, tastes or is in his possession. As a result, “Milos” is the triumph of authentic art, as the New York Times has written.

Costas Spiliadis was born and raised in Patras and was a son of a military magistrate from Filias, a mountainous village in the Peloponnese. Arriving in Manhattan, he stayed in a room of the Christian Youth Union and cried every night as he was missing his home, the big city drowned him and he felt completely lost. After a while, he moved to a private home on 14th Street, taking such a small room that he had to climb on the bed in order to reach the window.

Because he was on a student visa, he wasn’t allowed to work. In his room, he cooked chicken necks, which cost at most 15 cents a pound. He was a friend with another Greek who was working at a hot-dog place on 42nd Street and his Greek friends and he would walk from Washington Square to Times Square because the guy working there would stuff two or three hot dogs into the bun and cover them with sauerkraut so nobody would see.

He soon left for the University of Maryland to be closer to his older brother, Stelios, who was attending John Hopkins. His brother has said that Costas had always been a spiritual and politicized man and that if someone told him that his future would be in business and restaurants, he would say that this would never happen. He also felt humiliated that his Greek identity was not appreciated. Everyone, including friends, called him Gus, not Costas.

In 1971, he set off for Canada. “I knew Montreal had a very strong Greek community, very anti-junta, and that was all I knew,” he said. In Canada, he found what he says he couldn’t in America: a multicultural atmosphere that allowed newcomers a place in society without pressure to abandon their cultural identity. “In Canada,” he said, “you integrated, you were not assimilated. Canada opened doors, provided education, civic lessons and job opportunities.

Mr. Spiliadis earned a B.A. and started graduate studies at Concordia University, although he never completed his master’s thesis on the political economy of Greek immigration. “I was always writing and rewriting,” he said. “I’m the type of person who leaves things unfinished.”

In 1979, he opened the first Milos – the beginning of his gastronomic empire over the Filoxenia pub he held for a year in the Mile End area. His “staff” consisted of a dishwasher and himself in the role of a cook. “I did it because I had the need to prove that Greek cuisine and Greek culture were not as bad as everyone believed,” he says, although he did not know how to cook at all and called his mother in Greece and asked her about the food preparations.

He tried to differentiate himself from the picture of the Greek restaurants with the moussaka and create a new culture around the food “Greece is blessed with thousands of islands, wonderful fish and seafood, like the whole Mediterranean. That’s why it made sense to me to make a kitchen that was focused on the treasures of the sea,” he said in an interview.

Spiliadis opened his first restaurant at a time when the chefs began to overlook tradition and innovations such as “Californian cuisine” and molecular gastronomy. He decided to ignore all this, to remain faithful to simplicity and purity. Today he owns seven restaurants in the heart of the world, in cities like Montreal, New York, Las Vegas, Miami, London, Dubai and Athens.

Fresh fish arrive in his restaurants every day from Greece and the Mediterranean are displayed in a showcase while an expert advises customers on the best way to cook the fish they want. The restaurants “Milos” are neat and airy, reminiscent of open markets, with a minimalist Mediterranean style. There, one can see ancient amphoras and warm-weather customers who pass in front of the fish showcase, choosing what to eat.

“I expect perfection because my culture expects perfection,” he said. “For what I charge them, people expect perfection. Otherwise, I have nothing else going for me. I am not a star chef. People judge me on their experience.” Costas Spiliadis, for his part, took care of his clients.

His friend and colleague, Lenny Lighter, has said, “From my table, I could see in the kitchen. Costas cut a thin slice of each melon, ate a bite and threw it into the rubbish. I realized he was controlling each melon himself before serving it. ” He has opened every Milos restaurant himself, remaining on premises for months, no matter how far from home it might be. He rarely rests. “I wish I could. It’s not sensible to be obsessive, but it’s a part of me. I’m not always happy about that,”

In addition, he owns the company “Milos Yacht”, which guides in dozens of Greek islands foreign visitors in yachts, offering unforgettable experiences in the enchanting corners of Greece. “Cava Spiliadis” has excellent quality Greek wines in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, California and at selected LCBO Vintages Canadian Monopoly stores. He also sponsors concerts by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

The basic principles that led him to success, as he says, “Honesty, hospitality and raw materials, which have the dominant role. I use high-quality materials with minimal interference on my part. I am the mediator who transfers the products from nature to the table. I support the purity of the flavors. ”

In 2020 after very careful consideration and pondering he set out to open his first ever luxury hotel –  xenodocheio Milos, choosing Athens as the first destination. With an exceptional location in the heart of Athens steps from Sintagma Square, he restored a neoclassical building which houses his flagship restaurant on the ground-floor as well as an oyster bar and 43 rooms and suites. Exercising his incessant pursuit for perfection, he has dissected luxury hospitality to the smallest details, achieving an exceptional luxury boutique hotel, already ranking very high in Athens.

Comprehensive review of xenodocheio Milos coming up in January 2024

Oliver Petcu

 

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