As you step through the door of Kellari, squeeze your eyes tight shut. When you open them again inside the K Street restaurant, you'll be in Plaka, that warren of tiny streets below the Acropolis in Athens that tourists find so funky. Bouzouki music tinkles away in the background and across the room away from the bar where bowls of olives and hunks of Greek cheese squat waiting to be consumed by barflies, lies a display of fish stretched across a field of ice below boxes of fresh tomatoes and squash. Greek kourabiethes cookies are piled on a dish by the door to thank the leaving diners. You won't get that in Plaka.

Kellari, Greek for 'cellar', used to be Alison Swope's place. Now Anthony Acinapura is in the kitchen. He's come down to the capital with his young family from New York where owner Stavros Aktipis and Kellari’s executive chef and partner Gregory Zapantis launched the first Kellari and Kellari's Parea Bistro.

He's not Greek. But he's spent a lot of time in the Greek islands, doing what you do almost better in Greece than anywhere else: rent open air jeeps, drive from the beaches to the wineries and tavernas and restaurants and stop over a spectacular view just as the sun is setting. "Traveling through the islands is traveling through Paradise."

The food he has cooked most of his life has been Mediterranean. At Kellari, the recently arrived Washington outpost of the New York namesake, follows the Mediterranean sensibility for fish that's as fresh as can be, thrown on a grill and served simply, just dressed with the best olive oil, a squeeze of lemon and a handful of herbs. "Fish as fresh as we get," says Acinapura "doesn't need any more." The company is planning an import company so it can fly its fish direct from Greece and the Mediterranean in 24 hours.

The fish choice at Kellari is unusual and wide-ranging. Diners are led by waiters to an impressive display and introduced to the 'catch' of the day. Lying whole across hummocks of ice are Mediterranean sea bass, John Dory, turbot and - Kellari likes to use the Greek names - fagri (Mediterranean pink snapper), barbounia (mullet, which Acinapura says he can't keep enough of in the house), lafrini (bream), sipora ( a dorade), senagrida from the snapper family and more. "And every niow and then we get this fish called 'big eye snappers'." Acinapura recommends it's ordered cooked on the bone. "Our hottest seller is octopus, done in olive oil, red wine and capers, how you would get it in Greece." But the restaurant also moves a good deal of lamb chops. His tzadziki probably takes the prize for demand, though. "I go through maybe 20 two-gallon tubs of yogurt a week. My recipe for tzadziki takes eight gallons at a time, and I make it almost twice a week. We use it as a dip and as a garnish. It goes with the vegetable chips which fly!"

Acinapura has come down from New York City with a young family. "DC," he enthuses, "is the best place to raise a family. Just with the culture as far as going to the Smithsonian for free! And the history, the education system - it's very, very good."

He has to get back up to New York regularly which is a reminder of the difference between the two cities. "People in DC don't go out as often. New York has a captive audience that goes out to eat every night. People don't cook in New York. New York has more attractions to make people want to go out - theatres, venues, shows. They go out to eat a lot. They don't here." He was interested to observe during this winter's snow storms how people dealt with the weather. "A snow storm in New York, restaurants get busier. Here it's ohmygod, let's go home and dig in!" It's the difference, he concludes, between a community that lives in the center of town and one with a sizeable base in satellite communities in the suburbs. Kellari is busy at lunch and at weekends. "But during the week dining is difficult on K Street. Where is the residential?"

As far as Acinapura is concerned, when it's time for him to pack his knives back into his chef's roll, he's happy to head home to Alexandria to unwind. His wife is Venezualan and he loves her cooking - when he's not to be found in Chinatown brandishing chopsticks. "That's my comfort food."

Kellari, 1700 K St NW, 202 535 5274

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