STYLE
WEDNESDUy
JANUARY 20,2016
Oil Going Greek: Mykonos Gril
Lea Silverman
Senior Reporter
(gleasilverman
Six years ago, Steve Papakostas saw that
there was a gap in the variety of food available
to the Burlington community. There were
plenty of American food restaurants and
chains, but nothing that resembled the food
that Papakostas loved to make.
Living in Kernersville — which has a large
Greek community — Papakostas noticed
■ the absence of Greek food in Burlington. So
Mykonos Grill, a restaurant also found in
Gibsonville, Salisbury and Concord, made
another home in Burlington.
Patty McCauley, a Burlington native who
had never eaten Greek food before Mykonos
Grill, has been working at this location since
it opened and has moved up to the role of
manager. In that time, she has watched the
restaurant transform from a small, casual
Greek restaurant to something much more to
the Burhngton community.
Though the menu hasn’t changed much,
the food has been in such high demand that
the original space the restaurant occupied was
not able to accommodate all of the customers
who flocked to try the newest fad on the Burl
ington restaurant circuit.
MALI TAUXEl Photo Editor
A classic gyro, a thin sliced blend of beef, lamb and spices in a pita with tzatziki, is found at Mykonos Grill.
Most food trends fade out, but for Myko
nos Grill, the hype continues to this day.
“We took over the space next to us last year
because we were getting more business than
our building could physically handle,” McCau
ley said. “It has helped tremendously. We are
still filling it up. It is wonderful.”
The physical space of Mykonos Grill is split
into two sections and has a very casual feel.
The space is set up like a classic New York deli,
with a counter that patrons walk up to order
at and plenty of booths and tables to fill the
space. But at Mykonos, there are flavorful sou-
vlaki and tzatziki sauce instead of thinly sliced
deli meats and brown mustard or mayo.
During lunch hours, everyone from con
struction workers to lawyers look to Mykonos
Grill to enjoy the flavorful grilled Greek food.
McCauley said though the crowd that comes
into Mykonos varies, everyone has something
in common: they are looking for some good
food.
“We get a mix of everyone,” McCauley said.
“We do get a lot of Elon students, mostly at
nights and on the weekends. We do get people
even from Graham and Greensboro coming
in. We see everybody’
Other than just a few menu additions, like
calamari and a fried cheese appetizer called
saganaki, Mykonos GriU has stuck to its roots
with Greek classics like gyros, souvlaki and
. baklava.
“Mykonos is conveniently close, and unlike
a lot of restaurants in Burlington, their food is
light, nutritious and unique,” said sophomore
Molly McAdam. “Their spanakopita is truly
delicious.”
GUIDE TO GREEK CUISIHE
Baklava: a phyllo pastry filled wit
chopped nuts and soaked in honei
Moussaka: combination of bate
eggplant, potato, tomato, zucchini
and spiced ground beef
Saganaki: a fried cheese appetiu
made in a special type of frying pji
Souvlaki: chunks of meat, usua
pork or chicken, that are grilled anl
served in a pita with tzatziki sauce
Spanakopita: a phyllo pastry
stuffed with spinach and feta chec
Tzatziki: a sauce made of yogurt,
cucumbers, and garlic, with some
olive oil, salt and sometimes leme
juice and dill
Mykonos Grill is proud of the reputatic
that comes from the quality of its foodHii
restaurant focuses on providing a “tasted
Greece” in a fresh and healthy way.
Mykonos GriU, located on 2253 S. Cb
St., Burlington, is open 11 a.m. - 9 p.m. M
day through Saturday. The lunch crowd n
up a majority of their customers as there;
different lunch combinations offered evei
day.
luctus: A Teen Drama'where people are peopl
Allie Dietz
Senior Reporter
@AllieDietzz
The past year saw changes and
advocacy for gender equality and ac
ceptance, a topic largely hidden from
the public dialogue until now. With
public figure Bruce Jenner making
her transition into Caitlyn and Blake
Lively and Ryan Reynolds provoking
the conversations of gender-neutral
names by naming their daughter
James, gender is becoming more of
a hot topic.
At Elon University, students, us
ing their classwork and campus re
sources, have brought a great deal of
visibility to the forefront of equality,
with a prime example being “Luctus:
A Teen Drama,” a YouTube show
created by senior Valerie Reich and
junior Darius Moore.
The show was written so that the
main characters were scripted using
gender-neutral names like Char
lie, Noa, Alex, Jamie and Riley. The
creators felt this was a way to build
the characters’ true selves, allowing
them to develop as people regardless
of their gender. These unisex names
do not strike a masculine or femi
nine connotation.
Reich said she and Moore went
into writing the script with the same
idea that “people are people,” and
by assigning non-gender specific
names they were able to look at the
characters without preconceived no
tions of how they should or should
not act based on their gender.
“Luctus” is filmed on campus
with juniors George Whitaker and
Fergie Philippe-Auguste and seniors
Caleb Albert, Monica Poston and
Kelsey McCabe as the main charac
ters. The pilot of the show, the only
episode out, centers around on the
lives of these five students at fictional
Luctus University,
To create the first episode, the cast
spent a while developing their char
acters and becoming comfortable
with one another.
“We spent a few days on set, which
was unusual for me since I’m used to
sets only being four hours,” McCabe
said, “This extra time really helped us
become familiar with our characters
and build relationships with the oth
er cast and crew members.”
Reich said the main goal going
into the pilot was to make it as dra
matic as possible. This whole episode
is filled with relationship and friend
drama to make the plot relatable to
students.
“There’s a scene I have with
George Whitaker, talking about
mixed vibes from crushes that we’ve
all felt,” McCabe said. “The fact that
George’s character felt the same way
made me connect with the gender
neutrality concept. Anyone, regard
PHOTO SUBMITTED BVt
Juniors Fergie Phiiippe-Auguste and George Whitaker piay characters with the gender-nuetral names Riley and Jamie.
basis on which societal structures are
formed. With this new gender-neu
tral naming, some social structures
are straying away from the norm
and are allowing gender to be a less
significant feature of a person. This
is something that “Luctus” creators
"SUBCULTURES SHOULD MAINTAIN THEIR
OWN INDIVIDUAL CULTURAL IDENTITY, BUT
OVERALLWE SHOULD STRIVETO BE A MORE
INCLUSIVE HUMAN POPULATION."
VALERIE REICH
SENIOR
less of gender, can go through the
relationships and issues we face in
this show.”
Historically, gender has been the
were aiming for — to have characters
whose names did not have to con
form to restrictive stereotypes.
Though • this trend of neutral
naming seems to be a new move
ment, Michael Giordano, a psycho
therapist and licensed clinical social
worker from Washington, D.C., who
specializes in gender identity, calls it
a newer cultural phenomenon and
suspects it’s been around for a long
time, but has been kept very quiet
and private.
The gender^neutral trend can
give people a kind of non-restrictive
independence that gendered names
do not.
Giordano thinks the idea of “Luc
tus” is fascinating and original.
“I haven’t heard of anything like
it,” he said. “I suspect it would be of
comfort to gender-neutral people
who feel alone as well.”
Helping to eliminate these pre
conceived notions about who a per
son is and what he or she stands for
is something the show’s creator Re-
ich wanted to bring to the forefront.
This story line' opens up dialog in so
many other areas — the ideacil
■ ' ill
der-neutral naming is the firstif
reassuring people to have thC'
age to be true to themselves.
“Subcultures should i
their own individual cultural
ty, but overall we should strivfi
come a more inclusive human
lation,” Reich said.
Giordano agrees that in ij,
of a judging culture, beliefin*^
is somefliing to be admired.
Focusing on her goals ofefl
Reich is hoping her story “I
will open doors for
people, to help others underst^
challenges and help gender
people not feel so alone.
As ofnow,asecondepisw
not been shot.
“This was one of my
projects I’ve worked on at ^
it ends on such a cliffhang^f
Cabe said. “I hope we get^®
working on this project.
c