Kostas Souvlaki

Kostas has been grilling pork souvlaki on Pentelis in Plaka since 1946 — six stools at a counter, a charcoal grill at the back, a homemade pita that the family has been making in the same wood oven for three generations. The format is one item, two ways: souvlaki in pita, or souvlaki on the plate with the same pita on the side. The line at lunch wraps the corner; the line is the right line. For the Istanbul cosmopolitan, Kostas is the cousin to the late-night Beyoğlu kebab counter — the cheap, perfect, unrepeatable street-food gesture the chapter notes for what it actually is rather than for any pretension to be more.