Nóstimo By the Original Greek Soft-Opens New Dining Room; Grand Opening This Week

Patrons can finally enjoy Nóstimo By The Original Greek in-house as the restaurant soft-opened its dining room on Thursday night.

Chef Shannon LeClair (left) with George Anagnostou (right) marking the soft opening of their dining room. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The seating is two-and-a-half years in the making since opening in April 2021 and a ribbon-cutting ceremony in October of that year. The dining room can seat 32 people.

The renovation plans for the new area began in February. The storefront was closed from Nov. 19 until last Wednesday to complete all the upgrades. In addition to getting permits, the restaurant installed a wheelchair-accessible washroom, two dining room spaces and added additional decoration.

The Greek eatery is getting liquor licenses this week for the grand opening at an undisclosed date for this week according to George Anagnostou, Nóstimo co-owner.

”Since 1986, I've only had indoor dining restaurants,” he said. “I did take out and catering only because of Covid so I'm back in my glory. I love doing what I do, feeding people at a table, our table.”

With the addition of the new space, Anagnostou and his business partner, Chef Shannon LeClair, can introduce new services and dishes to their menu.

“Our menu has increased,” explained Anagnostou. “We have our originals we've had for the last 40 years but done some changes to them. We've added new creative dishes, there's fresh fish every weekend and there's going to be a rack of lamb every Friday and Saturday as well.”

The restaurant has stopped its cooking classes but is adding quarterly wine and pairing nights.

The following are the restaurant’s new business hours:

• Monday: Closed

• Tuesday: 4 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Wednesday: 11:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Thursday: 2:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

• Friday: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

• Saturday: 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.

• Sunday: Closed

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Foodie Friday: Nòstimos Regarding Anagnostou's Family Restaurant Legacy In Town and Serving Greek Food

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We talk with George Anagnostou and Shannon LeClair of Nòstimo about Anagnostou's family legacy of restaurants in Peterborough and bringing fine Greek and Mediterranean dining to town.

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Local Restaurant Continues Family Legacy in Peterborough With Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony

It has been seven months in the making but George Anagnostou is continuing his family’s legacy with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for his restaurant grand opening, Nóstimo By The Original Greek on Tuesday.

Chef Shannon Leclair (left) and George Anagnostou (right) holding the ribbon as Mayor Diane Therrien (middle) does the honours. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The restaurant opened in April but it held off on the ribbon-cutting ceremony due to COVID-19 pandemic.

Nóstimo’s specializes in Greek food where Anagnostou describes his food as fine dining for take out since there is no dining area available.

This is his fourth restaurant in Peterborough with previous places such as The Original FAT Greek StrEATery food truck in Ennismore, The Original Greek and his father’s restaurant, the Shish-Kebob Hut that opened in August 1976.

Peterborough became Anagnostou’s home since his family immigrated to Canada in 1975. He continued having his businesses in town because of the Canadian roots he had since moving here.

“I came here at 14 years old and Peterborough became my hometown,” explained Anagnostou. “I played hockey here, I've always had my heart in Peterborough, a lot of my friends are here and I went to high school here.”

Nóstimo means “delicious” in Greek. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Mayor Diane Therrien was invited to officially cut the ribbon. It is a tradition of Anagnostou’s to have the mayor perform the ceremony as with his previous ventures.

"What makes our community so unique and special is that part of it is our small business community in the way that our entrepreneurs support our community and support one another,” said Therrien.

The building’s landlord, friends and nearby entrepreneurs gathered to celebrate the grand opening of the restaurant. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Anagnostou’s focus is on Nóstimo’s after closing down his seasonal food truck over the weekend. He enlisted help from his business partner and chef Shannon Leclair that he had met during his ventures in Toronto.

The restaurant will have services that few eateries offer that can showcase the multi-talented chef Anagnostou recruited he says.

"Shannon has been doing a lot of cooking classes in the past,” he explained. “She's very talented in more than just Mediterranian and cuisine so we're going to create food global-wide and  we're going to offer wine-pairing nights." 

A portion of these sales will go to several different local charities. Catering services are also available today in addition to their wine pairing and cooking classes.

Leclair is a renowned chef in the Greater Toronto Area and studied Culinary Arts at George Brown College. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

Anagnostou is a wine sommelier where a full wine rack is on display inside the establishment.

In addition to the authentic Greek menu, Nòstimo’s has a weekly fresh fish feature that has previously featured rainbow trout and sea bass that was delivered from Greece.

The restaurant is located at 184 Marina Blvd. It is open six days a week from 11:30 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. from Tue. to Sat. and 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. on Sundays for dinner service only.

“I'm back in the north end where we started 45 years ago,” said Anagnostou.

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