The Gazette, Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Greek native brings Italian flair to town
by Monica Hogan | Staff Writer
You don’t have to be Italian to love Italian food. And if the popularity of Wheaton’s Cristina Ristorante Italiano is any indication, you don’t have to come from Italy to run a successful Italian restaurant.
Owner Nick Kontos was born and raised in Greece, but grew up loving Italian food. He and his wife Barbara bought Cristina four years ago, after having retired from the restaurant business
Chef Gabriel Campos learned to cook from his Italian mother. ‘‘He makes a yummy, yummy tiramisu,” Kontos boasts. Campos previously worked in New York City’s Little Italy and at Rockville’s Timpano Italian Chophouse.
Cristina’s menu includes both Northern and Southern Italian cuisine. Among its most popular dishes, Kontos says, are veal and lamb chops, and sea bass.
‘‘I sell a lot of seafood,” Kontos says, ‘‘and all the pasta is fresh. Crab ravioli sells [out} first.”
Tables go quickly on Friday and Saturday evenings, so reservations are recommended.
Asked what prompted his interest in the restaurant business, Kontos replies simply: ‘‘I love the food, and I love the kitchen.” It’s no wonder he can’t retire. And that should make lovers of Italian food everywhere — and especially in Wheaton — all the happier
