If you ever read a Harry Mark Petrakis short story or novel you know Greek restaurant owners are indefatigable and love what they do, so retirement didn't work out for Liljana ‘Lily’ Parastatidis and her husband, Nick.

A few years ago in New Jersey they got out of the restaurant business and opened a jewelry store for a few years before COVID-19 ended that, so they moved to Barefoot Beach Resort in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina to try to retire again.

“We’ve been working since we were kids, since we were 12 years old when we stepped in this country. We can’t just sit, we have to do something, and this was the best thing … This is my trade anyway. I’ve been doing it my entire life,” she told Myrtle Beach Online.

Lily's Opa Opa Taverna will feature traditional Greek music. “Everybody’s familiar with that word (Opa) and we didn’t want to put a bunch of Greek names. You know, go wild and be happy, that’s the idea,” said Lily, who grew up in New York and spent 40 years in New Jersey.