Costa Mesa's The Whole Pita (a.k.a. “The Greek Island Grill”) is now known as “Thasos – Greek Island Grille”.
Same owners, same food (for the most part), but a new name.
Why did the place pull a Sean “Puff Daddy/P. Diddy/Diddy” Combs on us? I called and asked. They have a few new items, they said. I didn't really press on to get them to really tell me why “Thasos” was better than “The Whole Pita”, because I kind of already knew.
“The Whole Pita” sounds like a place that focuses on just, well, pitas — and why pigeonhole yourself when you don't have to, especially when Greek food has more to it than pitas.
Plus, Thassos is an actual Greek island!
In any case, I was glad to see that they were sticking it out. In this economy, you do whatever you can, even if you have to follow the playbook of a self-promoting rap mogul.
THASOS – Greek Island Grille, 3940 S. Bristol St., Suite 113, Santa Ana, CA 92704
Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.