Chef Brendan Pelley will play with live fire at Bar Vlaha in Brookline, a new restaurant from the team behind Krasi, Greco, and more.

Bar Vlaha is only the first opening that Pelley will oversee as the inaugural culinary director of Xenia Hospitality Group, a newly anointed collective of Greek restaurants that includes Back Bay’s spiffy wine heaven Krasi and the fast-casual chain Greco. Xenia is the brainchild of restaurateurs Demetri Tsolakis and Stefanos Ougrinis, who tapped Pelley to oversee the culinary direction of the portfolio as it grows: Besides Bar Vlaha, the Xenia team has imminent plans for additional locations of Greco (in and outside of Boston), is expanding its Greek food market Agora, and has another new restaurant in the works for the second half of 2023.