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About Us Lynn and Makis met while Lynn was a passenger on the Golden Odyssey cruise from Venice to Athens in the late 70s. Being an art major, Lynn wanted to take a train to see Florence. She got up early the first morning and asked Makis (a deck steward in charge of activities and meals on the ship) for directions to the water taxi and train station. The following day, the conversation of how her Florence trip went started the ball rolling for a shipboard romance. Their first date was at Spiros Restaurant on Mykonos. Lynn remembers Makis ordering a whole fish with the head and tail, and his total enjoyment of eating everything, including the eyeballs. She states "It must have been love or I would have been repulsed!". So after twelve days at sea, Lynn and Makis parted, but planned to see each other again in Mexico when the ship traveled there and on to Canada during December. Many letters, phone calls and short visits in Acapulco and San Pedro, the couple started planning their next rendevous. Makis tried at every port to get a visa to the US but failed. After much frustration, the couple decided to meet in Acapulco again the following October, to decide if they were really in love. That being the case, Lynn started the paperwork for a fiance visa, and Makis arrived in California the following February. They married in March. Makis did handyman work for a while, as Lynn was in real estate and had several property management accounts. The two bought and sold several properties themselves after fixing them up, and built up a little nestegg to start their first restaurant in June, 1980.
This proved to be a very good move for The Greek and for the Ventura Harbor. A good lease was negotiated and a great partnership with the Harbor began. The three adult Mikelatos children all worked at The Greek at the Harbor until Darius took over management of the family's Mexican Restaurant, Margarita Villa (opened in 2003), also in Ventura Harbor. Aris graduated from Cal Poly and is now managing, bartending and does payroll for both restaurants, and daughter Marika manages and serves as well as attending Ventura College. Lynn and Makis travel several times a year, allowing the children to take on more responsibility each year. Aris recently started performing the unique "Table Dance", where he picks up three tables with his teeth, dances and spins them around to everyone's amazement. Darius and Marika are also quite good Greek dancers.
Thank you for visiting, and please return again soon. OPA!! |
