Nick Livanos is the head of the Livanos Restaurant Group, a multi-generational family business that operates Oceana and Molyvos restaurants in New York City, as well as Moderne Barn and City Limits, in the suburbs of Armonk and White Plains, N.Y., respectively.

The restaurant group was started in 1960 by his father John Livanos, who had immigrated from Greece three years earlier and started washing dishes in his uncle’s restaurant.

Nick Livanos grew up working in the family restaurants and got a degree in management from Adelphi University in Garden City, N.Y., and later attended The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

Both Oceana, a seafood restaurant, and Molyvos, which serves high-end Greek cuisine accompanied by an all-Greek wine list, are in Midtown Manhattan, which was hit hard early in the pandemic when offices were closed. Those restaurants are  up and running again, although Molyvos recently relocated to a smaller location, which Livanos said suits the new restaurant climate in Midtown.

He recently discussed his restaurants and the changing dining scene.