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Athenian Corner plans expansion
Popular downtown Greek restaurant hopes to double in size, add condos
By TOM SPOTH, Sun Staff

LOWELL -- In 1974, Greek immigrant Stavros Panagiotopoulos and his three brothers bought a little Irish pub on Market Street and remodeled it into a Greek restaurant called the Athenian Corner.

Save for a few cosmetic upgrades, the place has remained the same ever since. But that's all about to change, as developers prepare to rehab the building and turn the top three floors into about 20 condominiums. As part of the deal, the Athenian Corner will more than double in size, expanding into an adjacent parking lot.

When the city's condo boom took off a few years ago, the Athenian Corner property became extremely valuable. Developers offered to buy the land, but Stavros, who became the restaurant's sole proprietor in 1981, resisted.

"This is his life's work," said Stavros' son, Teddy. "This is what allowed him to establish himself in this country."

Business is OK at the Athenian Corner, said Teddy Panagiotopoulos, who runs it now. But there are significant problems -- the kitchen is too small, the only bathrooms are at the top of a flight of stairs, and the heat and air conditioning are inadequate. A second-floor banquet room has been rendered unusable because of a lack of temperature control.

Panagiotopoulos and Sam Poulten, a regular customer at the eatery, got to talking about the future of the business. They devised a plan to overhaul the restaurant while adding condos upstairs. Poulten, a Realtor at ERA Morrison in Lowell, brought in two partners and agreed to pay for all renovations in exchange for control of the upstairs.

"It's a no-lose situation," Panagiotopoulos said. "We'll get a nice, brand-new building, and all we gave up was rooms we don't use upstairs."

A preliminary submission to the Planning Board shows a 2,177-square-foot addition to the Athenian Corner's existing 1,898 square feet. An additional 2,000-square-foot retail space, also to be owned by the Panagiotopoulos family, would be added at the corner of Market and Shattuck streets, where the parking lot currently sits. Panagiotopoulos said he hopes to keep at least a few parking spaces intact.

The plans show seven condos on each of the top three floors, ranging from 842 to 1,167 square feet, but Poulten said the size and quantity of the condos has yet to be determined. The residences will likely be sold for between $250,000 and $350,000, he said.

Poulten declined to offer an estimate on the cost of the renovations, but said he and his partners are making a "substantial investment." The move mimics ERA Morrison's strategy of building and selling high-end residential space in the city -- the company just moved its corporate headquarters to Market Street from Westford.

"We're really ready to put a large contribution into the city of Lowell ... so when an opportunity came to develop another piece of property, we thought it would be very appropriate," Poulten explained.

Panagiotopoulos said an expanded kitchen, new bathrooms, updated ventilation systems, and a new cocktail lounge and more seating will allow the Athenian Corner to compete with more modern establishments such as Caffe Paradiso and Fortunato's.

"It'll be old-world values in a new-world setting," he said.

He's also toying with some other ideas: wireless Internet access, sidewalk seating, new dishes on the menu, hosting business functions, and holding Greek wine tastings.

Panagiotopoulos is excited about the prospect of the Athenian Corner contributing to the revitalization of downtown Lowell.

"We want to be able to meet (customers') needs," he said. "We're not looking at tomorrow ... we're looking at years down the line."

Poulten said that once the permitting process is complete, construction should take between six and eight months.

(c) The Lowell Sun, August 30, 2006          (latest News...)

Athenian Corner serves tasty slice of traditional treat

[BY HOLLY BEDARD – 168 STAFF]

Published: December 08, 2004  

I don’t remember the first time I had spanakopita, but I certainly remember the last.

I had been craving it recently, and on an early afternoon last week, I persuaded a coworker to head to Lowell with me for lunch at the Athenian Corner.

I had been there once before and knew we’d be in for a treat. We were quickly seated at a small table and began to browse the menu, though I’m not sure why. We were already decided on the spanakopita.

The spinach pie ($6.95) comes with your choice of soup, and a salad or rice. For my soup, I chose the chicken egg lemon. This was one of the most delicious soups I’ve had! The lemon really stands out and gives a nice tart flavor.

My friend ordered the Greek lentil soup, which also had a really nice flavor to it. We ate these quickly while munching on some bread.

We almost couldn’t believe the size of our meals when they arrived. We both had a large, thick piece of spinach pie – mine with the rice, hers with the salad.

The spinach pie was delicious. Nice and flaky, with a good spinach flavor to it. (I’ve had some spanakopita where you couldn’t taste the spinach at all!) The balance here was just right.

My lunch was so big I had to bring half home, which was fine with me; I finished the rest off for dinner that night.

We finished off the meal with some Greek coffee ($2) and some Baklava ($2.95) – the perfect ending to a tasty lunch!

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