Greek food — with its foundational ingredients like olive oil, lemon, vegetable, beans, lamb and seafood — is a shining culinary example of America’s melting pot of immigrant food. The drink, food and culture of Greece shine in Charleston, which offers many ways to enjoy Mediterranean cuisine.
From best friends to restauranteurs
Charleston-based Justin Hunt and Dimitri Hatgidimitriou grew up together on Long Island and have been best friends since first grade. Hatgidimitriou’s family is from Karpathos, a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, and every summer, the family would return. Because of their close friendship, Hunt joined the tradition.
“When I went to the island where Dimitri’s family has been for six generations, it was just flooring. At that moment, I fell in love with the place. Our experiences there, especially dining, are what created what we have at Philosophia [and Taverna].”
This means great seafood and meat, shared plates and a desire to find joy through the act and art of a meal, be it while dining with one companion or a giant table of friends and family.
The two men took different paths in the food and beverage world before coming back together to open Philosophia in 2022 and Taverna Philosophia in 2024. Since school, Hatgidimitriou worked front of house in his family’s New York restaurant. Hunt started at College of Charleston before going to Art Institute for culinary school. He then cooked with Bobby Flay in New York and Thomas Keller at The French Laundry, before the Lowcountry lured him back. He was in the kitchen at the Macintosh before dual roles as executive chef and food and beverage director at the Mills House Hotel.
Hatgidimitriou took a leave of absence from his family restaurant and joined Hunt at the Mills House. There, the two polished off several decades of research and development, and the time finally felt right to open a concept together.
Philosophia is a bit more casual while Taverna has a slightly more refined menu. The former is an easy place to grab a few shared plates and a slightly lighter meal, while the latter has more of a steakhouse feel. Both locations have a stellar happy hour and accessible lunch menus. The flavors are more or less the same between the two concepts, but the difference is how they’re used on the menus.
At Philosophia, you’ll find dishes like gyros, bowls and the classic Greek spreads at lunch. The kolokithokeftedes are outstanding fried zucchini cakes and the tyropita are like the best mozzarella sticks you’ll ever have. The seafood yovetsi serves local seafood in a lemony tomato broth over Greek pasta, and the roasted chicken is feta brined.
Taverna offers a raw bar and caviar service, and appetizers range from escargot with a beurre rouge to cassoulet croquettes. A pork tenderloin roulade comes with house-made pappardelle, and the roasted vegetable moussaka is the perfect meat-free dish.
The cocktail menus are built around liquors infused in-house. A cucumber vodka is used to make a cucumber cooler, a bourbon smash is made with rosemary-orange infused bourbon and chili infused tequila is used for a palmona. They also have a house-made limoncello.
Looking ahead, the team will open a new Philosophia location on Clements Ferry later this summer. What will remain the same is the ethos behind the restaurants.
“At the end of the day, I’ve lost the battle between food and hospitality,” said Hunt. “And I’m happy to have lost it. While we do have great food, there are plenty of other places to go in town. People keep coming because of how they feel here.”
Born from a food truck
Leonardo Frias started Platia Greek Goodness as a food truck in 2015 when he was 19. A native of Ecuador, he started in the food industry five years earlier as a baker, and he moved to Spartanburg, S.C., when he was 16, where he worked in a Greek restaurant. He eventually made it to Charleston, working in restaurants while building toward his own concept.
“Greek food is everything I believe food should be: fresh, simple and built around real ingredients,” Frias said. “It’s flavorful without being complicated, and it allows people to eat well and feel good about it. That balance is what drew me to it.”
Frias also noted parallels between Greek food and the Ecuadorian food of his youth.
“Growing up, meals were simple, fresh and very communal,” he said. “That mindset has stayed with me and is something I’ve carried into Platia.”
In 2019, the roaming food truck transitioned into a stationary one at 720 Magnolia Road in Avondale. Frias noted this gave him more consistency and community connection, allowing him to refine the menu and build systems.
Platia’s menu is peppered with all the Greek favorites. The gyro comes with proteins like chicken, pork, shrimp and lamb while salads include a classic Greek, Greek Caesar and a chickpea spinach. On the appetizer menu, you’ll find dishes like avgolomeno soup and dolmades, and Platia also has a burger, a lamb burger, a falafel burger and a fried chicken sandwich.
Dips are favorites like tzatziki, garlic hummus, beet hummus and an excellent feta pimento cheese. Desserts include sweets like baklava and kataifi.
Frias and his wife Eloisa opened their first brick and mortar location in 2023 in North Charleston, taking everything they learned from the food truck and scaling it into a full operation. A Mount Pleasant location opened in October 2025. The food truck is still an important part of the business, and it is used for catering and offsite events.
“At the end of the day, we’re not trying to reinvent food,” Frias said. “We’re focused on doing simple things the right way, every single day.”
Celebrating all things Greek
The Charleston Greek Festival, put on by the Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, started at Middleton Gardens in 1970. It migrated to Charlestown Landing and Marion Square, then settled in the church grounds at 30 Race St. in 1991. This year’s celebration takes place May 8 through May 10.
“The reason we have always had the festival was to share our faith, culture and food,” said Effie Meletis, who has been the head of the kitchen for the last decade. “You get traditional Greek cooking from families from many areas of Greece.”
Effie’s daughter Stephanie shares this sentiment. “A big thing that sets the festival apart from say a restaurant is that it brings women and men from across the church — and families from origins all over Greece — together cooking home-cooked Mediterranean food,” Stephanie said. “Typically, a Greek restaurant is single family owned so its origin is from one area in Greece.”
Effie’s husband Tom has been the chairman of the festival since 1986, and he passed the torch to nephew Michael Wade about five years ago. The two now serve as co-chairs.
“It’s gotten bigger and bigger and bigger,” Wade said. “I think people love Greek culture in general. The scale has grown in a huge way. What has not changed: The quality of our food is top notch.”
According to organizers, the festival welcomes over 20,000 people throughout the weekend. Mothers can attend for free on Mother’s Day Sunday, and a portion of proceeds from the festival is given to local charities.
The most popular food is found at the inside taverna, featuring traditional meals such as lamb and chicken dinners, moussaka, pastitsio, spanakopita and dolmades. Outdoors you can find the gyros, lamb burgers, sides and much more.
And for those with a sweet tooth, you’ll find baklava sundaes and loukoumades, which have been made by the Bohren family for over 25 years, and highlight a traditional version from Glyfada/Argyroupoli, outside of Athens.
A wine garden offers a variety of Greek bottles you’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere. The festival has also partnered with Westbrook Brewing this year to create a Greek themed beer.
Putting on a festival of this magnitude with such a vast array of food and drink is no small feat. Prep starts six months out and is a true all hands-on deck venture, with generations of congregants coming together.
“Our hope is that people continue to enjoy the Greek cuisine, culture and faith for years to come,” said Effie.
More Greek places to try
Don’t miss these other great Greek spots in Charleston:
- Ali Baba Deli and Catering: 186 Seven Farms Drive, Daniel Island
- Athens Resaurant: 1739 Maybank Highway
- The Great Greek Mediterranean Grill: 1417 Folly Road
- Kairos Mediterranean: locations in Mount Pleasant, Summerville and West Ashley
- My Big Fat Greek Trailer: 695 Coleman Blvd.
- Stella’s: 114 St. Philip St.
Glossary of Greek food terms
Avgolomeno soup: traditional Greek lemon chicken soup
Baklava: a sweet pastry made with layers of phyllo dough filled with chopped nuts
Dolmades: grape leaves filled with rice and herbs
Gyro: meat grilled or cooked on a vertical rotisserie, sliced and served in a pita along with toppings like tomato, onion and tzatziki
Kataifi: shredded phyllo and walnuts, baked and soaked in a sweet syrup
Kolokithokeftedes: fried zucchini cakes
Loukoumades: bitesized fried dough drenched in honey syrup (like a Greek donut!)
Moussaka: layers of eggplant (and often other vegetables), sometimes with a spiced meat sauce and a creamy béchamel (like Greek lasagna without the pasta!)
Pastitsio: a baked pasta dish
Spanakopita: a savory pie of phyllo pastry filled with spinach, feta, onions, herbs and eggs
Tyropita: marinated feta cheese wrapped in phyllo and fried
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