Greek specialties among favorites at Lexington’s Flight Deck Restaurant

Anyone familiar with Lexington is familiar with Flight Deck Restaurant and The Shoppes at Flight Deck.

Located at 109 Old Chapin Road, Flight Deck Restaurant has been a Lexington staple since Lexington Town Council member Ted Stambolitis opened it in 1992. The restaurant originally was located across Old Chapin Road, behind Rush’s, but moved across the street when Stambolitis created The Shoppes at Flight Deck, the 30,000-square-foot center featuring retail stores and restaurants that Flight Deck Restaurant calls home.

In addition to its location, Flight Deck’s longevity likely is due in large part to its menu, which includes a variety of options, from Blue Plate specials such as pot roast (made from top round beef and roasted in house for four hours) and fried flounder to Greek food such as gyros and Greek salads, both in homage to Stambolitis’ Greek roots.

“The key to successful restaurants or any good food is to start out with high-quality ingredients,” Stambolitis said. “You pay a little bit more money, but you can tell the difference.”

Another big menu hit is Flight Deck’s lasagna, handmade by Stambolitis’ mother, Dena.

“That’s my mom’s recipe, and she comes in and makes that three or four times a week,” Stambolitis said. “She makes and then stews the ground beef sauce for a long time, and then layers it with mozerella, provolone and white cheddar cheeses. We don’t use ricotta because it’s overpowering. We want the meat and cheese to stand out.”

Dena also makes the Tzatziki sauce for the gyros and the Greek dressing as well as the chicken salad, also a family recipe.

“She’s the inspiration behind our Greek food and really the driving force behind all our success,” Stambolitis said.

The grilled salmon with lemon, butter and Greek spices also has become a highly requested menu item, Stambolitis said.

Flight Deck boasts a wide selection of desserts, including nearly a dozen cheesecakes in flavors such as Bailey’s Irish Creme and caramel pecan fudge – all homemade by Stambolitis’ brother-in-law Victor.

“Our cheesecakes sell like crazy,” Stambolitis said.

How did the place get its start?

Stambolitis’ father, John, immigrated to Florence in 1951 and became a U.S. citizen in 1956. After serving in the U.S. Army during the Berlin Wall crisis, John Stambolitis worked in, then owned several restaurants. Thus began the restaurant career of his son, Ted, who worked alongside him. However, restaurants weren’t what the young Stambolitis had planned for his life.

“I wanted to be in the Air Force or the Navy,” Stambolitis said, adding that he was in the ROTC in high school and college. “Growing up as a kid watching the Apollo missions, my ultimate goal was to get into the shuttle program.”

However, during his first year in Navy ROTC in college, a physical found that Stambolitis was legally blind in his left eye from an astigmatism that developed in his late teens.

“My commanding officer got the information and broke the bad news to me,” Stambolitis said. “He said, ‘Not only are you not going to be able to fly, they’re not going to let you in.’ It broke my heart, but I still loved flying. Growing up as a kid, I built model airplanes and remote-control airplanes, and then the real thing just really never got out of my system.”

That’s why, when Stambolitis decided to open a restaurant, the theme of flight took stage front and center.

What else?

While the entire restaurant theme is a huge draw for kids of all ages, the restaurant’s game room – with Skee ball, Ms. Pac-Man, air hockey, racing and, of course, video games with planes and military maneuvers – doesn’t hurt either.

The restaurant also features five rooms for large parties ranging from 18 people to 120 people.

What does the place look like?

Flight Deck boasts a whopping 10,000 square feet, and it does a great job of tastefully filling every wall and flat surface with flight-themed gear and memorabilia, most of which is from the World War II era.

A giant King Kong bursts out of the wall in the main dining area – grabbing a plane, of course. Model planes hang from the ceiling and display cases showcase authentic Navy and Air Force items.

“It’s like a big ol’ boys’ room,” Stambolitis said with a laugh. “I started out with probably about 10 percent of these artifacts from air shows or aviation magazines or just antiques I collected over the years. The rest have been donated by friends and customers.”

Who eats here?

When you’ve been open 24 years, the question is who hasn’t eaten here.

Flight Deck is a favorite with the locals, but it’s also a large draw for pilots.

“We’ve actually had the good fortune of having some of my aviation heroes that I’ve read about and admired over the years visit us here at Flight Deck,” Stambolitis said. “The Doolittle Raiders were here for both their 50th and 60th reunions; we’ve had the remaining members of the Black Sheep Squadron here; the Tuskegee Airmen have been here. And then our most honored visitor was Paul Tibbets who flew the Enola Gay – the airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.”

Janet Jones Kendall, jjkendall@thestate.com

This story was originally published July 27, 2016 at 12:23 PM with the headline "Greek specialties among favorites at Lexington’s Flight Deck Restaurant."