Almyra brings stylish Greek dining to the former Little Pete’s space

The Pashalis family has the three posh Estia restaurants and the two casual Pietro’s pizzerias. For the latest, it has gone pretty much down the middle.

Almyra — pronounced “al-MEER-ah” — opens Friday in a stunning ground-floor space at the Hyatt Centric hotel at 17th and Chancellor Streets in Center City, lining the corner with windows that will open in the warm weather. Gus Pashalis said they are going for a Greek seaside look and feel, as opposed to Estia’s somewhat more inland focus. It’s a spacious 200-seater, with a series of dining areas, cleverly separated by Grecian urns and columns, that provide some intimacy. Flowers cascade from pergolas, and single battery-lit tapers on tabletops give warmth. Lighting overall is warm enough for dinner, but fine for your cell-phone photos.

The best tables are along Chancellor Street. Based on a preopening visit, seating by the open kitchen seems pleasant, without the usual madness of an air-traffic control room. There’s a 30-seat semiprivate dining room in the rear, which happens to be directly across the street, through the curtains, from Pizzeria Vetri.

Almyra’s marble-top bar, just off the dining room, sits beneath a hand-made chandelier decorated with 177 glass roses. Along the back wall of the bar is an installation featuring driftwood from the beaches in the family’s hometown of Nafpaktos.

The restaurant was known as Anthos when plans hit the drawing board in 2016 for a hotel at 11th and Sansom Streets, the former Midtown II Diner. That hotel project stalled, but the Pashalises regrouped behind a second hotel taking the site of a 24-hour diner across town in Rittenhouse.

That would be Little Pete’s, which closed in 2017 after 39 years.

The diner business is tough, and the economics have not been in owners’ favor for some time, despite the rising population of Center City. All-night Wawas, delivery apps, safety fears, and — most decidedly — the pandemic restrictions put an end to them.

Add to that, the rush to development. Little Pete’s plot of land, a corner property a half-block off Walnut Street, was deemed too valuable for a 1,200-square-foot restaurant topped with a parking garage. In early 2017, when Pete Koutroubas got the notice that he must close that summer to make way for the 13-story Hyatt Centric hotel, he said he was paying $10,000 a month rent. When he opened in 1978 in a former Dewey’s, it was $800 a month. The Little Pete’s spirit lives on at its location in Fairmount.

Almyra’s prices are average by Center City-night-out standards. Spreads, such as tirokafteri, edamame hummus, and patzaria, are $6 each. The Cretan Village salad is $16. Crispy rice rolls with tuna, avocado, and olives, a starter, is $18. A mezze, spanikopita manti, is $14. Entrees are in the $30s, from $30 for short rib over feta mash as well as herb-brined chicken over basmati rice to $39 for lamb chops. There are chicken, steak, and shrimp kebabs. Cocktails, including the petalouda with vodka, Mastiha, elderflower, and butterfly pea tea, average $15.

They plan to add brunch service in early 2024.

Almyra, 1636 Chancellor St. Hours are 4 to 10 p.m. for dinner, with the bar open until 11 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and till midnight Friday and Saturday with snacks from the kitchen. Happy hour is from 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays. Fully wheelchair accessible. Reservations on Resy.