Vlad’s Souvlakia, a new café-style meat skewer restaurant on the corner of Sixth and Jackson streets, brings together Vlad the Impaler, traditional food culture and a community sensibility to impale hunger and high prices on the stake of quality.
Slated to open the first week of July, Vlad's Souvlakia will offer a variety of skewered food options for consumers on a budget. The restaurant itself has been completely renovated using renewable and recyclable materials. joseph engle | summer arg
Nick Pitsilionis, co-owner with Tim Balen, said Vlad the Impaler was the inspiration for the café’s name and details on the logo and it fits with their intentions to grill into late night. They’ve kept the metaphors simple and he said they want to do something interesting for Halloween, but the café will be open year-round barring weather complications.
Balen said the menu will include a variety of skewers, such as beef, turkey, pork and tofu. Breads, salads and other sides will bolster the meals. Pitsilionis said they’re working on obtaining licenses for beer and wine.
“It’s adding to a kind of diverse food culture here in downtown Moscow and beyond,” Balen said. “We look at it as kind of ‘the more the merrier.’ People have variety and can bounce back and forth and kind of see what they like.”
Pitsilionis said Moscow has cultivated a significant food culture with shops like Pie Hole, New York Johnny’s, Mikey’s Gyros and larger restaurants, and new additions are sustainable provided they add unique quality instead of imitation.
He said community is a priority for Vlad’s, and good food can bring people together.
“Truthfully, I think what happens is the more variety, the more quality … pulls people in from adjacent areas,” he said. “They want to come spend time here in Moscow. What you’re cannibalizing in terms of each other’s customer base, you’re gaining in terms of bringing new people into the area.”
Pitsilionis said this process requires time, patience and a “critical eye for doing things (that are) unique).”
While meat skewers aren’t unique to any people group, Pitsilionis said, his first exposure to them occurred in his home village in Greece. Souvlakia is the Greek plural term for small meat skewers. In his village, a man and his wife grilled meat, prepared salads and served beer and wine near the shade of a tree in a central courtyard. Pitsilionis said the simple meals were often in groups and provided a social atmosphere.
Balen said this casual skewer culture is common in Greece.
“It’s kind of a traditional (souvlakia) scene in Greece,” he said. “You can kind of come and sit down, have a brewski with your friends, chew on some souvlakia, yap (and) have a good time.”
He said Vlad’s will be open to a varied demographic, from people grabbing quick meals during work to late-night bar-hoppers to catered events. Balen said they’ve worked outside grills before, and Vlad’s is good for those “on the go” in inclement weather.
“We’re in a nice position where people can pull in quickly, (we can) throw their food to them, (they can) throw their money back and be on their way to their fire places, their hearths, their wood stoves and be comfy,” he said.
Balen said they’re in contact with producers to keep everything as local and affordable as possible. For this purpose, he said, they use a hardwood grill with locally hoarded applewood and plumwood, and a friend is experimenting with fruit-wood-based charcoal.
Pitsilionis said their traditional charcoal approach involves a degree of craft that will necessitate prices that reflect their products’ quality, but he believes people here share their beliefs about craft and community. He said he wants prices to be “inclusive (and) accessible to a lot of people,” in order to break down the exclusionary price barriers of a nutritious lifestyle.
“(People) get to see not just us slinging meats on a grill, throwing them and flipping them, burning them and sending them out, but the craft of putting things together,” he said. “(It goes) back to doing things in a less efficient, possibly, but ultimately more fulfilling way that you can’t really replicate with the shortcuts that modern technology has provided us.”
Emphasis on quality and community extends to the structure of the café itself. Balen said many of the materials for the wood siding, the windows and the menu board hanging racks were reclaimed or recycled. He said the architect, Robert Barnstone, associate professor in the school of architecture and construction management at Washington State University, lent the project a particular eye for detail.
Emphasis on quality and community extends to the structure of the café itself. Balen said many of the materials for the wood siding, the windows and the menu board hanging racks were reclaimed or recycled. He said the architect, Robert Barnstone, associate professor in the school of architecture and construction management at Washington State University, lent the project a particular eye for detail.
Pitsilionis said Barnstone was much involved in the construction of Vlad’s and was ideal for the project because of his “sculptural” style and his understanding of Greek dining and Souvlaki culture.
Pitsilionis said it’s better to utilize spaces inside the neighborhood than to construct something further out that might draw people away from each other.
“We wanted (Vlad’s) to look nice when you drive by it, to look like something attractive when you’re moving about your day even if you don’t stop in,” Pitsilionis said. “Whether you drive by or walk by or whatever … it’s something that you feel adds to the quality of your community.”
He said Vlad’s will open by the first week of July, and people should be able to pick up a substantial individual lunch with all the fixings for under eight dollars.
Balen said Vlad’s Facebook page will feature menu information, construction photos and other tidbits.
“It’s nice, wholesome straightforward food that anybody can enjoy,” Balen said.
Matt Maw can be reached at [email protected]