Vassiliki Ellwood Yiagazis has merged two of her family cultures to create her restaurant in Mid City. Smoke & Honey offers a menu uniquely inspired by Ellwood Yiagazis’ Greek and Jewish heritage. Yiagazis and her business partners Lauren Lynch and Chad Vigneulle opened the spot in January.

Ellwood Yiagazis was born and raised in Aegina, Greece, near Athens, before emigrating to the United States when she was seven. She spent some time in New York, where she met Lynch and Vigneulle at their restaurant, Harlem Public, while working as a server and hostess. She moved to Los Angeles to pursue her acting career, spending a decade there before relocating to New Orleans with her partner during the pandemic. Because the local film industry was shut down due to the pandemic, Ellwood Yiagazis fell back on her love of food to make a living.

Village Salad Photo Cred Kat Kimball

“I was seeking comfort food, and I love to feed people,” Ellwood Yiagazis explains. “Coffee Science put on this incredible Sunday farmer’s market and I started selling my matzo ball soup. That’s how Smoke & Honey started.”

From there, Smoke & Honey embarked on a Monday night popup residency at Pal’s Lounge, much to the delight of the neighborhood regulars. After two years there, she partnered with Lynch and Vigneulle to open Smoke & Honey’s brick and mortar.

Greek food comes as a second nature to Ellwood Yiagazis. Growing up, she cooked traditional Greek food with her grandmother. When she learned she was half-Jewish a decade ago, the connection made sense because she had always loved Jewish cuisine. The recipes at Smoke & Honey are a love letter to her family and friends, who taught her how to make everything from matzo ball soup to lox.

Menu highlights include a traditional gyro made with pork, chicken, veggie, or lamb with tzatziki, red onions, tomatoes and fries wrapped in a warm pita. Ellwood Yiagazis explains that her gyro is unique in that she hasn’t been able to find what she considers a proper gyro in New Orleans that is on par with what you would find in Greece. Her dedication to authenticity and quality is also evident in another star on the menu, a lamb po-boy that Ellwood Yiagazis has dubbed The Lambeaux, a slow braised leg of lamb, whipped feta, onion, and garlic jam, red onions, and cucumber served on John Gendusa French bread. Ellwood Yiagazis cooks her lamb for 12 to 15 hours until it falls off the bone.

Another popular dish is The Loxsmith, in-house hot-smoked salmon, topped with a choice of cream cheeses, capers, and light pickled red onion on toasted marbled rye. Ellwood Yiagazis smokes her salmon over two days to produce a perfect smoky flavor. She is especially proud of her Broth and Balls—her take on matzo ball soup made the “sacrilegious” way with bacon fat instead of chicken schmaltz. Bagels from New York are topped with smoked salmon and chive, scallion, jalapeno or plain cream cheese. She also offers a Village Salad made with seasonal tomatoes, cucumber, red onion and feta, topped with slab pork or chicken.

Honey Pastitsio courtesy of Smoke and Honey

“I had a really hard time finding an easy and accessible salad that isn’t just filled with a lot of lettuce,” she says of the Village Salad. “I make it almost on a daily basis at home so it’s fulfilling to bring food like this, that I love to eat, to New Orleans.”

Breakfast and lunch aren’t the only things on Smoke & Honey’s menu. The restaurant offers dinner, which includes more complex dishes from Ellwood Yiagazis’ repertoire, such as 15-Hour Lamb, slow-and-low braised lamb, seared and topped with mint chimichurri on a bed of Argorizi spelt orzo; branzino, whole Mediterranean branzino stuffed with ouzo-sauteed leeks, dill and lemon; Pastitsio—bucatini noodles, spiced ground beef, and a thick layer of béchamel with Graviera cheese and topped with parsley;  and Keftedes—five beef and pork balls mixed with mint, garlic and red onion with pita and tzatziki.

In the evenings, Greek-inspired cocktails are available such as Skinny Dip made with Skinos Mastiha liqueur and lemonade and topped with bubble water; Bloodytini made with muddled heirloom cherry tomatoes, vodka and Vermouth Blanco; and Ouzo Negroni made with Votanikon Gin, Tximista Blanco Vermouth, Amoro de Vine, and an ouzo wash. Wine is also available by the bottle.

In addition to the delicious food, Smoke & Honey serves as a satellite location for Coffee Science, the café where Ellwood Yiagazis got her start. The coffee shop offers its full menu of tasty coffee drinks and will offer specialty drinks in future collaborations with the restaurant.

Ellwood Yiagazis has enjoyed being in the building that used to be home to another popular lunch spot, Piece of Meat, and is delighted to continue her relationship with the Mid-City neighborhood.

Smoke & Honey owner Ellwood Yiagazis. Photo courtesy of Smoke & Honey.

“Mid-City and Bayou St. John were my pop-up neighborhoods, so I feel right at home. I see regulars that used to come to my pop-ups come in here every week for a gyro or coffee. When I decided to open Smoke & Honey, I knew I wanted to stay in this neighborhood. All of the pieces fell into place without having to try very hard,” she says.

Smoke & Honey, 3301 Bienville Street. Open daily for breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and for dinner Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday through Saturday, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.