Another Sad Day. Goodbye, Ouzo's.

I was frankly very attached to Slices, the gourmet all-you-can-eat pizza, pasta, and risotto place up on Biscayne at about 138th.  I ate there once a week.  And I didn't have much company.  The food was genuinely gourmet, the place itself was very comfortable and welcoming, and the staff became like friends.  Oh, how I hated the day I went there to eat, and they had closed.  There was no warning, unless the absence of patrons was a suggestion that they couldn't go on like this forever.  And I must say, Alexandre, the proprietor, did say he needed more business.  He and I talked about strategies to get some.  And the specials started to go away: the happy hour, the early bird embarrassingly low price...  But they just couldn't make it, and they had to close.  To this day, it hurts me to see the building, with the sign that says turn-key restaurant for sale.

I didn't really see the end of Ouzo's coming, until last week, when I got an e-mail saying the restaurant was closing, and Saturday, June 22, would be their last day.  I didn't depend on Ouzo's, the way I depended on Slices, but I always felt a special comfort and satisfaction there.  The food was first rate, and I liked the people.  They started out as Anise Taverna, and it was owned by Liza and her husband, Gigi.  When Liza and Gigi split, the place soon became RiverShack, but only for a short time and under Gigi's ownership.  Then Gigi was out, and Liza was back, and she reprised Ouzo's, which had been the name of her other Greek restaurants on Miami Beach.  There was always trouble keeping the right staff in the kitchen, and for a short time, there was trouble about a couple of the waitstaff.  But Liza and Gigi, then Gigi, then Liza always seemed to find a solution, and the place kept on keeping on.  Even when Liza expressed concern about what seemed like inadequate patronage, she always seemed to conclude that things would work out OK.  Which they did.  Until they didn't.

So now, Ouzo's is gone.  The last waitress, Alejandra, says she'll look for another job.  Liza says she wants another place, just smaller, with lower costs, in a building in better condition, and in the same general part of town.  Her headwaitress, and final partner, Andrea, is taking a month to go back home to Argentina, and she'll wait to see what Liza does.  Liza says Andrea says if she can't work with Liza, she doesn't want to work at all.  But Andrea will work somewhere.  So says Liza.  The kitchen staff are staying on, and the new place will be Big Fish, which had been down on the river, until it went belly up itself, but now the proprietor is back from licking his wounds in the Caribbean somewhere, and he's taken the space on 78th Street.

Well, we'll see what Liza does.  Whatever she does, she does it well.  She says she'll let me know.  In the meantime, I've lost the old familiar, satisfying, homey place that made the great Greek food I loved to eat for a special meal.  Ah, well.  As everyone always says, it's a tough, tough business.  Tough for patrons, like me, too.