ASTORIA – Restaurants come and go – and in the borough of Queens they are usually Greek themed or owned in both directions, but Nisi Mediterranean will soon be welcomed by the Community and foodies alike, taking the place of Calexico, which closed this summer almost as soon as it opened according to Patch.

“Astorians have wondered what business would try its hand next at the big triangular restaurant space on 30th Avenue. Now they have an answer: Nisi Mediterranean, a Greek restaurant that hopes to open up by early December,” Patch reported after speaking to manager Lefteris Daskalopoulos.

Nisi has a location in Melville, NY and was located in Manhattan, in the West Village before moving uptown to the Theater District, but that location was not open during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re coming to Astoria, which is a Greek neighborhood,” Daskalopoulos said. Reflecting the Greek island culture indicated by its name, “Nisi has applied a white coat of paint to the standalone restaurant building between 32nd and Newtown avenues, which Calexico had painted black,” noted Patch.

The interior will also be renovated, although the owners of Calexico had also made improvements. Nisi will be the fifth restaurant at that location since 2014, but Daskalopoulos is optimistic because, “the corner there, I believe, it was well-known as a Greek corner.”

Nisi’s Melville store serves “traditional salads, hearty entrées like mushroom risotto, seafood paella and lamb shank, plus mezze, daily specials and desserts,” Patch reported, but Daskalopoulos said, “[we] will adjust our menu according to the Astoria needs.”

(Material from Patch was used in this story.)