This is a post by N&O restaurant critic Greg Cox:

Giorgios Bakatsias, prolific restaurateur whose eclectic portfolio currently includes nearly a dozen establishments ranging from steakhouse (Bin 54) to French bistro (Vin Rouge), is at it again. This time, he's returning to his Greek roots.

And it looks like he's pulling out all the stops for Kipos (431 W. Franklin St.; 919-425-0760; kiposgreektaverna.com), which opened over the weekend in the erstwhile home of local landmark Pyewacket (and more recently, the Malaysian restaurant Penang). The location in The Courtyard comes with a bonus of three al fresco dining spaces that more than live up to the restaurant's name, which is Greek for "garden."

An extensive main menu of hot and cold meze, house-made phyllo pies, and entrees ranging from whole roasted fish to pastitsio and moussaka to rotisserie-roasted lamb is just part of the attraction.

Daily features include temptations such as Wednesday's braised pork shank, Thursday's lamb meatballs in Smyrna tomato sauce, and Saturday's eight-hour braised wild rabbit with pearl onions and fresh bay leaves.

You could make a vegetarian feast from the likes of gigante beans in tomato sauce with fresh herbs, simmered wild greens with lemon oil and sea salt, and a salad of local roasted beets, Greek skordalia and baby arugula in a dill lemon vinaigrette.

The restaurant and in-house bakery (which turns out an international assortment of breads and pastries) are open Tuesday-Thursday from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday-Saturday from 8 a. m. to midnight, and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Send restaurant news to Greg at ggcox@bellsouth.net. Be sure to tune in to Greg's radio show at 11 a.m. Saturdays on WPTF.

Greg Cox gives 3 stars to Giorgios Bakatsias' latest restaurant, City Kitchen. Go HERE to read the review.

Spice Street, a restaurant run by Giorgios Bakatsias' restaurant group at University Mall in Chapel Hill, will close in mid-March, according to a press release issued late Thursday.

In its place, Bakastais will open City Kitchen, which will feature "familiar American brasserie fare with locally-grown ingredients in a sophisticated, urbane setting."

The restaurant will close for renovations in mid-March and reopen in early April.

Giorgios Bakatsias, the man behind the Giorgios Hospitality Group restaurants and such Triangle restaurants as Girasole, Vin Rouge and Parizade, is now filming cooking segments for NBC-17's My Carolina Today.

The segment is called "Celebrating Food & Life from the Garden.”

The first one airs at 11 a.m. Thursday, April 7, in the first half hour of the show.

He will share a  recipe for Chicken and Egg  Aggolemono Soup. The eggs are from his backyard chickens. The recipe is his mother's.

Restaurateur Giorgios Bakatsias is opening two new restaurants in North Raleigh.

They include Girasole Trattoria, a new Tuscan-style restaurant located in Gateway Commons Shopping Center at the intersection of N.C. Bypass 98 and Jones Dairy Road in Wake Forest, NC.;  Gatehouse Tavern in the same shopping center.

Both places are expected to open in June.  To check out the menus go to: www.girasoletrattoria.com
and www.gatehousetavernnc.com.

At the Gatehouse Tavern website, you can complete a survey and be entered for a chance to win burgers for a year. 

Bakatsias teamed with Kevin "Michael" Summers, who co-founded and co-owned Rocky Top Hospitality restaurants in the Triangle from 1998-2008. Rocky Top Hospitality is behind Michael Dean's, Bogart's, The Red Room and The Twisted Fork.

Bakatsias helped create Parizade, Vita and Vin Rouge in Durham, Bin 54 and Spice Street in Chapel Hill, and Giorgio in Cary.

George's Garage is gone. The Ninth Street institution served its final dish last Friday.

Its lease was up, and the building's owners — Clay Hamner and Terry Sanford Jr. — plan to use the property in a redevelopment project, according to Giorgios Hospitality Group, which had operated George's for 15 years.

George's Garage was a combination cafeteria/bakery/takeout/bar/serving restaurant. With its closing, restaurateur Giorgios Bakatsias said he has "a very exciting new concept ... on the drawing board."

Bakatsias's company owns or operates several other eating places in Durham and Chapel Hill, among them Vin Rouge, Parizade and the Nasher Art Museum cafe.