A Seat at Max’s Table
Dimitri and Angela Xinidis are the husband-and-wife team behind Max’s Table in Osprey. So, who’s Max? Max is their daughter, Maria—her initials and nickname—and this nod to family is echoed on the menu with the dish Stavi’s Tacos, which is named for their son. Maria has grown up running around the restaurant that is her namesake (she was 2 when it opened) and it’s a full circle experience for her mother. “My parents owned dinner restaurants in Ohio, and we have customers that used to work for them and remember me, as a kid, running around the restaurant,” she says. The couple loved the idea of having a daytime restaurant because they knew the sacrifice of a dinner establishment. Angela laughs, “I didn’t see my parents until they retired and moved to Florida.”
Family is important to the Xinidises; after all, it is a big part of their heritage—they’re both Greek. Chef Dimitri’s Greek heritage also informs a lot of the dishes at Max’s Table and accounts for at least some of the restaurant’s perennial popularity. Big plates of expertly prepared homey all-American diner food cozy up to Greek comfort food staples, and a few wild cards thanks to Dimitri’s creative influence. Talk about something to please any palate, you’d be hard pressed to find a diner unhappy with the choices at Max’s Table. Fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes, savory huevos rancheros, and the tangy tzatziki on the Big Greek Gyro, are all favorites among the regulars.
Max’s Table is always busy. There’s a wide outdoor patio (which Angela credits for helping them to get through COVID) and a tight interior with an open kitchen. Chef Dimitri can be seen pushing out dish after dish during the daily rush; his team is a blur of activity. The servers and managers are also part of the family.
“There’s not a lot of turnover; most have been with us from the beginning” says Angela. “And, of course, there’s Theresa at the hostess desk; people get worried when she has the day off.”
Chef Dimitri is particular about quality. There’s an obvious difference when food is made from scratch. “Dimitri doesn’t open cans, that’s why he’s never home.”
Angela is joking but the prep and cleanup for a scratch kitchen are notoriously labor intensive. It’s obvious that Dimitri is a very talented chef and it’s easy to think that he may want to offer more than breakfast and lunch in the future. There’s talk of dinnertime pop-ups and an expansion of the catering arm of the restaurant. Catering is an area in which Dimitri can stretch his creative muscles: Working with a client versus offering a set menu, he’s able to offer everything from bacon-wrapped shrimp to sushi.
“Hopefully there will be some surprises down the road but for now every day is a new day and we feel super blessed. We don’t take it for granted.”
In the meantime, we won’t take the Crunchy French Toast for granted, or Theresa’s welcoming smile, or the sight of now-9-year-old ‘Max’ running around the restaurant handing out menus and making memories.
Max's Table: 115 S Tamiami Trl, Osprey; 941-220-7463; maxstablesrq.com
