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Miami’s Greek community just got a lot more famous, and the Miami Heat are a championship contender again – opa!
A blockbuster trade between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Heat means two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo – who has called Wisconsin home since he was drafted by Milwaukee in 2013 – will be taking his talents to South Beach this fall.
That’s a big change for Giannis on the court, but an even more drastic change off of it.
As the gracious hosts that we are, our job is to make Giannis’ Milwaukee–to–Miami move as easy as possible by providing him with a cheat sheet of the things that could help him feel most at home.
Not home as in Green Bay. Home as in Athens, where he was born, and visits regularly during the offseason.
Welcome to South Florida, Giannis. Here’s the Greek welcome packet.
The Greek Coffee Freak
First things first, when you arrive in a new city, you need to find the best coffee. Whether you’re a forward for the Miami Heat or a technician at Jiffy Lube, coffee is life. If it’s authentic caffeine that will make you feel like you’re still sitting by the pool in the offseason, Greek Sugar in Fort Lauderdale is a great bet.
Greek Sugar’s menu checks all the boxes – traditional Greek coffee, freddo cappuccino, and classic Greek frappé. They also carry European breakfast staples like kataifi, baklava, and spanakopita. Make sure your assistant, aka part-time Uber Eats driver, knows about this hidden gem with a perfect five-star Google review resume.
Our research team found that one of Giannis’ favorite childhood memories is walking to the cafe next to the basketball courts in Sepolia. A clutch cup of Greek coffee to start the day should soothe the soul.
Greek in Clutchtown
It’s been a long day. Coach Spoelstra was screaming Spoisms at you like Don’t let go of the rope and Keep the main thing the main thing! All you want to do is end the day with a nice glass of wine that tastes and smells like home, paired with some delicious pastitsio.
Yes, we did our research and know that’s one of your favorite meals, Giannis. We got you.
Our choice for you is Meraki Greek Bistro – not only for the cocktails and bites to eat, but also due to the location – it’s minutes from the Kaseya Center. Plug this sucker into your driver’s GPS and drop a pin in it.
Meraki’s has an incredibly vast, authentically Greek food menu, and wine list includes the most Athens-sounding offering we’ve ever seen – Assyrtiko, Malagousia, Moschofilero, Agiorgitiko, Xinomavro, Gavalas Assyrtiko, and Kalliston Assyrtiko, to name just a few.
We’ll let you judge if those remind you of home.
St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral
Now that you’re set up with a caffeine jolt and a postgame bottle run, let’s move on to the places in South Florida where you will hear enough Greek conversations that you might briefly forget you’re in Miami; St.Sophia is at the top of that list.
The spiritual home base, St. Sophia Greek Cathedral, has been the anchor to Miami’s Greek Orthodox community for generations. From a Greek school, youth ministries, and a community that will make Giannis feel like he doesn’t have to wait for the offseason to return to Athens, if #7 gets homesick at any point this year, our #1 recommendation is to get in your car and head out to St.Sophia’s for some good old-fashioned conversation, and likely, dinner invites.
The Miami Greek Festival
We’ve seen you get loose, Giannis. You’re not exactly the “lay back in his chair with a beanie over his eyes” type, like, say, Kevin Durant tends to be. You’re down to get down, and luckily, come the tail end of this season, you will have just the place to do it as they do in Greece.
If you need any further confirmation that St. Sophia’s is where he will find the people who act as the tzatziki to his pita, look no further than the annual GreekFest blowout it hosts. This past February marked the 48th annual Miami GreekFest, a weekend described as full of gyros, loukoumades, and dance-offs in full costume, drawing tens of thousands.
GreekFest normally takes place smack dab in the middle of the NBA season, so hopefully the Heat aren’t in the middle of a long road trip, and Giannis can make an appearance.
Biscayne Bay is the Aegean Sea
Miami will surely make Greekmaxxing infinitely easier than any city in Wisconsin.
If there is one thing that Giannis missed in Milwaukee during his 12-year NBA career, it’s Greece’s coastline. Miami will do a much better job of taking his mind off that during the season.
Whether it’s a boat ride through Biscayne Bay, a day trip to Key Biscayne, or a quick jet-ski ride past Star Island, South Florida’s turquoise water and year-round sunshine are more than just a Temu version of what you’ll get in the Mediterranean. When he’d usually be shoveling snow outside his Milwaukee driveway after a long road trip, this February, Giannis will be sweeping sand off his feet.
Not a bad trade for everyone involved (well, except Milwaukee).
Football Means Soccer Again
If Hard Rock Stadium being the epicenter of this year’s World Cup wasn’t enough of an indication, the possibility of being neighbors with Lionel Messi should be – in Miami, to most, football means soccer just as much as it does in Greece. In Wynwood, Giannis is almost more likely to run into an Olympiacos F.C fan than he is a Green Bay Packers fan. And that’s just how it should be.
Between Messi’s impact and the demographics, Miami’s soccer culture is a far cry from what Giannis left behind in Milwaukee. We wouldn’t be surprised if David Beckham comes calling, asking if the ‘Greek Freak’ wants a minority ownership stake in America’s greatest soccer team.
The Fort Lauderdale Greek Festival
Christmas just passed. The honeymoon is over. The dog days of the NBA season are upon us. If Giannis starts missing a taste of Athens this season, he can go ahead and circle a date in late January, when the Fort Lauderdale Greek Festival would be the perfect remedy for his homesickness.
Hosted each year by St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, the festival, like the Miami version, is a volume-up celebration of Greek culture, complete with souvlaki, baklava, bouzouki, and lots of other Greek-sounding words I could be making up but that Giannis knows are real.
Taverna Opa
Taverna Opa has locations in both Hollywood and Orlando. If you’re reading this, Giannis, no, not that Hollywood. We have a Hollywood, too. If you’re looking for it, just head toward the big Hard Rock Hollywood guitar in the sky and go from there.
If you’ve had enough ouzo, you’d swear Taverna Opa sits right on the Mediterranean, not the Intracoastal Waterway. By 9 p.m., the waitstaff is dancing on tables while napkins rain from the ceiling like playoff confetti. It’s the loudest Greek room in Broward County.
The Heat championship celebration at Taverna Opa is going to rival those of the World Cup parties we’ve seen around town this summer.
Mandolin Aegean Bistro
Miami can’t duplicate the sights and sounds of Greece – although it comes much closer than Milwaukee ever could – but we’re hammering home good eats recommendations because, let’s be honest, familiar food is the fastest way to close your eyes and feel like you’re back home.
Mandolin Aegean serves up some of the finest Greek-inspired, authentic cuisine this side of Hard Rock Hollywood, serving coastal-focused cuisines that should make Giannis feel like the offseason never ended. We’re talking grilled octopus and Fish of the Day specials that literally aren’t decided until the day of, just like in Athens.
When your dinner was in the ocean just hours before it hit your plate, you’re eating the Greek way.
Publix Speaks Greek
No welcome to South Florida would be complete without a mention of Publix, so we’re ending things in the least Greek place of them all, where shopping is a pleasure.
Giannis, in the future, someone is going to declare you absolutely must try a ‘Pub Sub,’ and it’s absolutely imperative that you take them up on this good advice. Consuming a sub from Publix – South Florida’s leading grocery market – is a rite of passage.
While the Pub Sub, sadly, remains stubbornly un-Hellenic, it’s important that the people around you immediately understand that, in a pinch, Publix carries respectable Greek salad, feta, dolmades, and roughly 75 versions of hummus, many of which will likely make you angry (unless we’re unaware that everything bagel-seasoned hummus is a huge hit in the homeland).
Can you get all that delivered from one of the many Greek restaurants in South Florida? Of course you can. Will you have a private chef who can make it as good as home? Probably. But just trust us – there is something about the Publix logo staring back at you in the fridge that just makes you feel right at home.
Welcome to your new home away from home, Giannis.
