A New Deli And Market Opens At The Old Crossroads In Botsford

By Kaaren Valenta

The Karamanos family has opened the Main View Deli & Greek Market in the building at 329 South Main Street that for more than 45 years was the Crossroads grocery store.

Peter Karamanos, his wife Georgia, and their son, Dimitrios, 11, launched their new business several weeks ago after buying the building last October and then spending more than seven months renovating it. They plan to have a grand opening celebration on May 1 to welcome the community.

“I’ve been in the restaurant business for 25 years,” Peter Karamanos said. “This looked like a very good place to open a business. Newtown is a very nice place, quiet, with friendly people.”

Main View Deli & Greek Market is open 6 am to 7 pm Monday through Saturday, plus 6 am to 2 pm on Sundays, offering both an American menu and prepared Greek foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Catering also is available.

“I’m here to please the customer so we have a lot of choices,” Mr Karamanos said. “Everything is freshly made.”

Breakfast choices, for example, range from a simple egg sandwich on a hard roll to pancakes and French toast, and a large selection of omelettes served with home fries and toast, including a Greek omelette with feta cheese and tomato, and a feta and gyro omelette. There are soups made fresh every day, plus salads, hot and cold sandwiches, grinders, subs, wraps, and burgers.

“All of our meats are Boar’s Head — only the best,” Mr Karamanos said.

There are daily dinner specials, from American favorites to Greek specialties like moussaka, pasticcio, and spinach pie (spanakopita). A selection of Greek desserts and pastries, including baklava, also is featured.

The new deli and market has a half-dozen tables for eating in, plus rows of food shelves stocked with a large selection of hard-to-find Greek pastas, preserves, olive oils, puddings, candies, and other delicacies.

“We also will be carrying milk, juice, and other groceries for the convenience of our customers,” Georgia Karamanos said.

Both Peter and Georgia Karamanos were born in Greece and came to the United States when they were teenagers.

“I was the son of a butcher and my grandparents were farmers,” Mr Karamanos said. “We lived in the town of Manesci near Nauplia, which was the original capital of Greece. It has a lot of history and is very popular with American tourists. I grew up eating everything fresh — fresh vegetables and fruit, fresh meat and fish.”

He was able to come to the United States in 1979 when he was 18 because several of his mother’s brothers lived here.

“My first job was in New York City as a dishwasher. Another fellow and myself washed 2,000 dishes a day. There wasn’t an automatic dishwasher,” he said. “From there I moved up, to deliveries, to donut maker, to cook. I’m not afraid of hard work.”

Georgia moved with her parents to Norwalk when she was 16. She later met Peter, got married, and a few years after Dimitrios was born, the couple decided to move to the Port Charlotte area of Florida.

“I had a pizzeria there for seven and a half years,” Mr Karamanos said.

But finally the couple decided that they liked life in Connecticut better, so they returned to Norwalk and began to look for a place to open a new business.

“We were driving past and saw this place was for sale,” Mrs Karamanos said. “So we asked about it, and here we are.”

While she was busy overseeing the renovations, Peter Karamanos worked at the Blue Colony Diner. Finally they were ready to open, although there were still things to do, curtains to hang, and other last-minute projects.

The Karamanos family does catering for all occasions. “Dimitrios came up with the idea of promoting an American and Greek party featuring both American and Greek foods, “ Mrs Karamanos said.

“The food is terrific,” neighbor Jim Zarifis said. “My family got a fabulous meal of lamb with lemon for Easter from them.”

Each day Peter Karamanos sends out a fax with the daily specials. For special orders, call the deli at 426-0564 or fax 426-7007.