Scenes and souvlaki from the Athena on Broadway

As I was writing this week’s review (a new venue in Olathe called My Big Fat Greek Restaurant), I couldn’t help sliding into a reverie about another Greek taverna: the Athena on Broadway, which was wildly popular in the 1980s and early ’90s. I know its legend firsthand because I used to work there.

I just missed out on the original Athena restaurant, on 31st Street, created in the early 1980s by then-married restaurateurs Yannis and Susie Vantzos. A real hot spot as a restaurant, it later became a punk-goth nightclub. It’s now a parking lot.