Byron Nicolaides: A unicorn from Chalcedon

I had never eaten melon with feta before. I certainly hadn't had it at the start of a meal. "But it's the best appetizer for raki," says Byron Nicolaides as he poured. "In the summer, when I'm on an island, as soon as I sit at the table, I ask if they have good melon, and they look at me with confusion. 'What, you want it now?' But here, it's a classic starter." The day is sunny, the Sea of Marmara sparkles in front of us, and people come and go on the pier. While the founder and CEO of PeopleCert, a global provider of assessments and certifications of professional and language skills that became the first Greek unicorn in 2021, converses in Turkish with the waiter about the menu, I admire the view, try the appetizer, take a sip of ouzo, and let out a "wow" in the international dialect.

We are at the fish tavern "Koco" (formerly "Kotsos") in Moda, the old cosmopolitan Greek...