Trela, a Greek Taverna & Bar, Will Open in Former O'Neill Public House Space

Ever since I heard about a new Greek restaurant opening up in the North Tabor neighborhood, I’ve been keeping an eye out for any news confirming the word-of-mouth details I encountered last year. Earlier this month a neighbor posted online a picture of the OLCC Public Notice affixed to the exterior of 6000 NE Glisan, and I knew this was it. The new restaurant is called Trela (or “tréla” on the logo), and I’m eagerly anticipating its opening.

O’Neill Public House

The space itself was most recently known as the home to O’Neill Public House, which closed in 2019. The previous owner, Phil Ragaway, sold it to SLC Holdings, which is the current owner today. There were alleged lease issues, but that’s in the past and there are new tenants.

Napoleon Tzakis

The aforementioned new tenant is Napoleon Tzakis, also the applicant of the liquor license and the Agent on the restaurant’s LLC.

Tzakis comes from a restaurant family. His parents are Denny and Helen Tzakis, who ran a restaurant in Cedar Mill for a couple of decades. His brother, Anthony, was behind Antoni’s Restaurant-Diner & Lounge, “an American diner with a Mediterranean flair” in Beaverton.

The Trela Space and Menu Speculation

As for the space itself, you’ll find that they’ve done some demolition inside (e.g., removing partitions). Bathrooms should get an upgrade including making at least one of them accessible. Interestingly enough, the submitted plans to the city indicate a “long term bike parking” area, which should be helpful, as parking in that part of town can be tricky. There will be a bar inside, table seating, and my guess is that they will apply for outdoor seating at some point (if they haven’t already).

The menu is inaccessible to me; I have contacted the Trela folks for more info on that. Greek food and pastries are about all I know; liquor, too. Looking some of the offerings that were at Antoni’s, Greek specialties served there included spit-roasted meat (lamb, especially), souvlaki, spanakopita, stuffed grape leaves, pastitsio, and Greek salad, so it wouldn’t surprise me to see some of these stalwarts of Greek cuisine on the menu.

I’d expect gyros, too, one of my favorite Greek specialties. Likely baklava will be one of the pastries; I’d love to see galaktoboureko, melamakarona (at Christmas), and samali, too. And frappes with Nescafe. Yes, I’m getting nostalgic from my days in a neighborhood with great Greek food. (P.S. RIP Neptune Diner were I first experienced the magnificence of pastitsio, soon to be demolished in Astoria, Queens.)

I hope the renovations have been going well and the menu development is a good time for everyone involved at Trela. I’m very much looking forward to checking it out when they open, hopefully sometime this year.

Trela Kitchen & Taverna [projected opening 2022]
6000 NE Glisan Street, Portland
trelagreekkitchen.com | Instagram

Updated December 9, 2024