The place to get Greek food in Kirkwood, near St. Louis, with music to boot, is the Greek Kitchen, the Riverfront Times said, noting it’s a place where families especially like the traditional food and setting.

Co-owner Lisa Nicholas was raised in a Greek Orthodox household with roots in Thessaloniki. She has worked in the Greek restaurant business since 1980. Her partner Joe Kandel comes from a baking background, which translated well to working with phyllo for the restaurant’s desserts. In the baklava alone, there are 27 sheets of individually layered and buttered sheets of phyllo. “He’s like a professional baklava maker,” Nicholas said of Kandel, who is also her fiance.

When Kandel asked one native Greek patron what he thought of his pastitsio, he told Kandel,”Home.”

“If [we] have their acceptance, then we’re doing something right,” Nicholas said.