El Greco Kitchen & Market

Some comebacks take twenty years. From 1990 to 2007, El Greco Cafe held down the corner of Main and Orange downtown, run by George Soublis, who came over from Greece in the 1960s and turned his family recipes into a Sarasota lunchtime institution. He sold the place in 2007, the cafe eventually went dark, and for almost two decades the avgolemono existed only in fond memory.

Not anymore. A couple of months back, in late spring, the family quietly brought it back. George's daughter, Patti Soublis Corcoran, teamed up with her nephew Dimitri Syros, who also had a hand in reviving the Hob Nob, to open El Greco Kitchen & Market in the Expo plaza on Clark Road near Sawyer. It has been up and running since May, so the kitchen has had time to find its groove.

The new version is fast-casual rather than the old sit-down cafe: order at the counter or a kiosk, grab a table, and the food comes to you. The menu is leaner than the original's, built around gyro pitas with fries, bowls, and salads, but the recipes are George's, right down to the avgolemono soup and the horiatiki salad that regulars still talk about. A grab-and-go market section is in the works too.

Go in expecting a quick, casual lunch rather than a long Greek dinner, and you'll leave happy. If you've been missing El Greco since 2007, the wait is over; if you never knew the original, this is your chance to find out what the fuss was about.

The scoop: El Greco Kitchen & Market, Clark Road.