Alexandria, VA – Ask Vaso (Vasiliki) Voliotis how she continues and what’s changed in her style of preparing food over the two decades that she’s managed Vaso’s Kitchen, and the lively chef with red lipstick might respond:
“I get up and I’m always on the go!” Vaso explained with a shrug, “I love what I do.”
This vivacious, Greek, 60-something-year-old woman seems to have enough energy to fill the entire home-style restaurant at 1225 Powhatan St. named after herself and her delight—a chef’s kitchen. Already, she is deep into the planning of its 20th Anniversary, marking two decades of gourmet food at neighborhood restaurant prices. Her love for preparing dishes, serving them to appreciative customers, and passing along the family’s culinary secrets to the next generation—her own family of chefs—is what drives her dawn to dusk. “I love what I do. I love to cook. Have you tried all my specialties?”
Ask her what her favorite dishes to prepare are and she will launch into how she tenderizes the veal for her superb dishes along with several specific steps to prepare her specialty entrees. Numerous dishes in sections of the menu include her originality in the preparation, noting Vaso’s specialties. Around the restaurant walls—similar to her sister Denise’s restaurant, Taverna Cretekou—hang magazine and newspaper tributes and photos featuring the excellence of their culinary accomplishments over many years.
And, indeed, the L word—Love—does permeate her conversation. “I love cooking—and time flies. Time flies!” she says with conviction. “I love working with my kids and seeing them become great cooks.” They know everything, she added, as she introduced her daughter Lia who laughed and hugged her mother as she joined her in a booth at the comfortable-casual restaurant. The dining room was already filling with lunch patrons, some calling Vaso’s name and waving when they spied her at a back table near the swinging doors to the kitchen.
Lia, a head chef who shares management of Vaso’s Kitchen with her gregarious husband Stratos Niklan, is like her mother—warmly welcoming and home-schooled in the art of fine cooking and dining.
“We get a lot of famous people coming in our restaurant,” Lia said. “Sometimes we know them and sometimes we just recognize them. We just try to keep it calm so people don’t bother them while they’re dining.”
Vaso mused that frequently she tries to explain why she still continues to work so hard as she nears retirement age. She paused and then replied, “I really… it’s weird… I still run both restaurants and I prepare food all day long, except on Mondays when we are closed and prepping for the week. I really love cooking. I love cooking these dishes.” About her menu favorites, she noted with a laugh that “Everything I do is a favorite: Baking fresh Italian-style bread (about 20 loaves a day), preparing the moussaka, cooking the seafood marinara with shrimp—scallops, clams, calamari, mussels, herbs, and white wine.”
With more than 45 years of experience, Vaso is a seasoned pro in the restaurant business. Looking back, she recalled emigrating directly to Alexandria at the age of 10, sharing “my mother came with her little children to Alexandria… and eventually she opened a restaurant.” Vaso said she attended school in Alexandria while working as a teen at an uncle’s restaurant; then, at age 23, she worked at Mike’s Italian Restaurant where she said she really learned the restaurant business over 25 years—while expanding her palate in Mediterranean fare. It was time to try something on her own.
Merging the idea of a Mediterranean cuisine with Greek and Italian classics, Vaso launched Vaso’s Kitchen in March 2006 and pulled together a menu that has broad appeal. She acquired the building once occupied by an early famous Alexandria restaurant called The Dixie Pig Bar-B-Q, which opened in 1924. (See sidebar photo and story on the Dixie Pig.) From there she began to create her own brand, which is still growing.
Since founding her first restaurant, Vaso also opened Vaso’s Mediterranean Bistro in 2012 with her son Ioannis (Johnny) Voliotis at 1118 King St. She is currently in the process of establishing an online market of Vaso’s brand with her family of carry-out items of some entrees, gourmet sauces, cocktails, mocktails, and desserts, which are already available for walk-in purchase at Vaso’s Mediterranean Bistro or online at vasosmarket.com.
Not surprisingly, Vaso’s flavorful recipes have gained fans’ accolades, practically from the start with the Washingtonian’s Best Tiramasu award (2009), which remains a major attraction along with her homemade baklava from those guarded family Greek heritage recipes.
As diners finish the last vestiges of her entrees, Vaso encourages them to try a dessert. “Try the Tiramasu!” So, they oblige. And it’s heavenly. Flavorful cream and cognac—almost requiring “age carding,” she said, giving a playful wink.
Vaso’s Kitchen is located at 1225 Powhatan Street in Old Town Alexandria. https://vasos-kitchen.com/ It is closed on Mondays.
