OK, so maybe it's not a real torch, but the flare of brandy on a brick of kasseri cheese - also known as saganaki - that flashes through the dining room with regularity at the latest incarnation of Spiro's. The newest location is in the former Arcobasso's space close to the intersection of Highways 94 and 364 in St. Charles. Out front, sometimes igniting the flame, is Steve Karagiannis.

Steve is the son of Harry, one of the four brothers who opened the original Spiro's at 8406 Natural Bridge Road in 1975 and later, Spiro's in Chesterfield. Subsequently the family expanded to St. Charles as well as other restaurants in the St. Louis Metropolitan area that don't have the Spiro's name.

Both locations have their own personality, The St. Charles white linens and chandeliers and staff in unjacketed black-tie/black shirt, but overall a relatively generic "nice restaurant" feel to the dining room, with only some background bouzouki music to localize the atmosphere. Combine this, however, with entree prices generally in the mid- to high teens - and tableside finishing of many dishes - and the overall value is very good.

One common misconception was that Spiro's is a Greek restaurant. It certainly has a strong Greek accent and features dolmades, moussaka and other traditional Greek dishes, but the menu also includes more than a half-dozen pasta dishes, pizza, bruschetta and other Italian and Italian-American dishes, as well as a straightforward, all-American grill of chicken, seafood, steaks and chops. If it has to be classified, perhaps "Mediterranean-American" will do.

But even the steaks can be translated into the family's original native tongue, in a process Spiro's calls Athenian Broil. They are topped with a mustard-cognac sauce and feta cheese, a family recipe only found at Spiro's or The Tenderloin Room.

And so Spiro's begins again anew - or at least it did when it opened its St. Charles location just a few years ago.