Meet the Chef/Owner: Nova Grill

One of the best parts of my job is when I meet a kindred spirit, someone who loves food and travel as much as I do. The conversation is effortless, endless and there is always much laughter and story telling. Costas Xinos is a kindred spirit. The Greek born chef/entrepreneur grew up in both America and Greece and now calls Newtown Square home. Instead of attending summer camp, he was washing dishes at his grandfather's restaurant. For midnight snacks he would raid the clay pot with homemade bacon—in his bedroom. He is gregarious, curious and full of life. Read below to find out more.

Name: Costas Xinos

Age: 47

Hometown: I was born in a small town in Greece, north of Sparta and south of Athens in Arcadia.

Home now: Newtown Square

Favorite Thing about the Community: I love that the people that come in here are knowledgeable and they've travelled. They've been to Greece, Turkey, etc. They come in here and they get it, they understand what we're trying to do. My business partner and I wanted to bring authentic Mediterranean food to the Main Line. My wife and I are Greek, he and his wife are Turkish and we are all great cooks. We wanted to share our food with the public. I had a guy come in the other day who had been vacationing in Turkey. He came in and saw that we had ezme. We call it "nova relish" but it's a Turkish item. It has tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, all sorts of spices and herbs. It's delicious and goes very well with meat. Anyway, he couldn't believe that he was eating ezme in Istanbul one day and then found it in Villanova the next day. 

Do you do any community work? We're going to have our official grand opening soon. We're also doing a fundraiser for Stop CAID, CAID stands for child anti-inflammatory disorders.

Years in the Industry: Since I was 12.

Earliest Cooking Memory: I was about 9 years old and we had just slaughtered a pig. I was at my aunt and uncle's house in Greece. They had an outdoor clay oven and we cooked the pig and potatoes in it. The food that came out of it was the most wonderful food ever. Best potatoes I've ever had in my life. My aunt made some mixture with vinegar, spices and things in it and cured the pork belly with it. She put the pork belly and the marinade in this clay pot which happened to be in my room. Every night around 3 a.m. I would open the pot and grab some of the homemade bacon and eat it.

First Kitchen Job: When I was 12, I washed dishes at Reno's Restaurant in Upper Darby. It was my grandfather's place.

What brought you to the industry? I grew up in the industry. I started working for my grandfather when I was 12, my whole family is in the restaurant industry. I went to Widener and met my wife there. Her father owned Pizza Palace in Bryn Mawr and I bought that business from him about 15 years ago. I still own it and my sister manages it. After that I started other restaurants in the area and then my business partner and I came up with this excellent fast casual Mediterranean restaurant, Nova Grill. Everything is authentic. The music we play is performed by an Irishman living in Greece who plays ancient Greek instruments. I was a DJ for a Greek radio station during college and that's how I discovered him. Music is a big part of Greek culture. We dance and eat well!

Advice for Home Cooks: Use simple ingredients. Olive oil, salt and pepper and oregano and some meat are all you need to make something delicious. People try to get all fancy and they don't need to. Light marinades, olive oil—they're all you need. We put olive oil in everything.

Favorite Thing to Cook: Locanico is a Greek sausage that I make. We have it on the menu here. There are about 20 different spices and even some orange peel in the mix. It's especially good with roasted red peppers.

Favorite Menu Item: I love the fire roasted steak on white pita with tomatoes and onions. We have lots of toppings and sauces but for me, I really want to taste the meat.

Healthiest Menu Item: Probably the roasted vegetables, there's eggplant, squash, zucchini, red and green peppers.

Favorite Local Restaurant: Don Memo in Upper Darby. It's authentic Mexican, best salsa verde I've ever had.

Favorite Restaurant in the World: Etrusco in Greece. It's a restaurant that serves organic, farm to table cuisine. My wife wanted some lemon for her salad and the server grabbed a chair, climbed on top of it and then picked a lemon off a tree outside our window and handed it to her. Psariton in Athens has amazing fresh fish. Minas in Greece also has wonderful fish. The food in Greece is wonderful. The fish, the vegetables—in Greece, you can actually smell the cucumbers. 

Guilty Pleasure (food or drink): Rice pudding.

Last Meal on Earth: Gourounopoulo, it's a pig dish from my village. It's a suckling pig cooked in a clay oven that has the crispest skin, we actually fight over the sin. It's similar to the pig roasts that they have in Hawaii.

Cook for Any Celebrities? Allen Iverson, Lisa Thomas Laurie, Jay Wright (head coach of the Villanova Men's Basketball team).

Favorite Food Shows: Anthony Bourdain. He's my hero, he travels and eats well all the time.

Biggest Kitchen Disaster:  I was adjusting the baskets in the deep fryer and I was snapping them into place but the snaps didn't catch so the baskets went plunging into the hot fryer oil and my arms got soaked with the oil. I rubbed yogurt all over my arms and drove myself to Bryn Mawr hospital. I was covered in second degree burns. The pain was so intense I could feel it in my bones.