Walking into Opa-Opa Steakhouse & Brewery is like stepping into the Old West – had it been settled by Greeks with a sense of humor, a taste for kitsch, and a fondness for homemade beer.

“As I say, it’s a place to find good brews, good steak, and a few good Greek fellas,” said Antonio Rizos, referring to his partners in the two-year-old steakhouse on Route 10 in Southampton: Themis Rizos (his brother), Chris Mirisis, and Peter Kantos.

Sitting amid a flood of Old West-themed decorations, from ropes and spurs to cowboy hats and animal horns – in a building that once housed a set in the 1965 film Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – the Rizos brothers talked about making the jump from running a pizzeria down the road to launching a steakhouse with a willfully uncommon aesthetic.

“It was a challenge,” Antonio Rizos told BusinessWest, referring not only to mastering a new type of eatery, but taking the risk on the heavy capital investment needed to install tons of beer-making equipment. “It wasn’t easy to put a brewery together. Three or four years ago, I was just drinking the beer. But I hooked up with some good people, and here we are.”

Opa-Opa is derived from the Greek expression of joy and celebration, he added. “That’s what we’re trying to convey – our jubilation.”

Americans at Heart

Antonio and Themis Rizos grew up a few hours north of Athens, Greece, where they constantly absorbed American culture on TV and at the movies. When they moved to the States, they opened Red Rock Pizza, which has now been a Southampton fixture for 17 years.

Still, they felt they could add something more to the culinary landscape. A second pizzeria might have been the easiest option, but they had something else in mind.

“We’re always looking for some new adventures,” Rizos said. “Two years ago, when this building became available, we saw it as an opportunity for us, and we grabbed it. We didn’t want competition for the pizza place down the street, so we thought, ‘let’s start making beer.’”

“We’re not brewmasters, but we developed a whole spectrum of beers, from ultra-light to our Warthog, which is 14% alcohol,” Themis Rizos said, pointing to the bar, where 12 varieties are currently on tap. “We have lights, IPAs, stouts, porters – something to cover every person.”

Key to the development of this palette was Dan Kramer, a brewmaster who was just leaving Maplewood Farms Restaurant & Brewery in Amherst when the Rizoses were searching for someone to take charge of the beer.

“We hooked up with him and started cooking up recipes together,” Antonio Rizos said. “Now we have people coming from all over to taste those beer flavors.”

They’re also choosing from a Texas-style menu – encompassing a wide range of steaks, chicken, pork, and seafood – that allows room for the occasional Greek touch, such as saganaki, a traditional fried cheese appetizer that’s served aflame.

The Rizoses put plenty of thought into their restaurant’s décor, from the Old West wall hangings to the large, carved “brew house” sign above a row of booths that dates from the late 19th century, when it was displayed at the Hampden Brewing Co. in Chicopee.

Meanwhile, the printed menu at Opa-Opa is packed with witty touches, including a “code of the west” governing how to order a steak. For example, medium well is available “for all you tenderfoots,” but if you order rare, you had “better keep a rope on it.”

“We’ve tried to create something unique, something the town needed,” Rizos said.

“Also,” Kramer added, “steak goes good with beer.”

Art and Science

Kramer gave BusinessWest a quick rundown on how beer is made, starting with malted barley, which is cracked open and steeped in hot water to create something resembling a tea. This liquid, called wort, is then boiled, and hops are added.

“Hops are like spices – they give the beer its aroma and bitterness,” Kramer said. “They can be added at different stages for different effects, and there are different varieties as well.”

The brew is later cooled down, and Kramer adds yeast and removes sugar from the malted barley in the wort. The yeast creates the alcohol during a period of fermentation; then the beer is cooled down and aged anywhere from a few days to several months, depending on the variety. Finally, the beer is filtered to remove the majority of the yeast, and it’s ready for consumption.

“I enjoy the creative aspects of the job,” Kramer said. “The whole process is a lot of fun. On the artistic side, it’s like a chef choosing which ingredients he wants to use for his recipes. Then there’s the scientific side, with the yeast management and what’s taking place in various vessels. So I get to be a scientist and an artist.”

He’s clearly doing something right. Opa-Opa has attracted a strong group of regulars, some traveling from Boston, Hartford, and New York to sample new offerings. Andy Crouch, author of the Good Beer Guide to New England, recently wrote that Opa-Opa is “perhaps New England’s single greatest undiscovered brewpub treasure.”

Rizos said Western Mass. is fertile ground for independent beer makers – and not only because there aren’t too many of them. “People here support local businesses, and they want to see local beers.”

“In general, across the whole Valley, people are interested in fresher products,” Kramer added. “They shop at farm stands and farmers’ markets. They realize that you’re not only supporting area businesses, but you’re getting a better product because it’s fresher.”

Local Flavors

Meanwhile, as Opa-Opa expands into the wholesale market – with a goal of becoming a major player outside the region – Rizos said he’ll never abandon his Pioneer Valley roots. In fact, the partners are launching another brewery in Williamsburg, on the site of the Williams House, tentatively called the Brewmaster’s Tavern.

“I believe in Western Mass.,” he said. “I had a chance to open a brewery closer to Worcester, but I’d rather do business here. We employ 35 people in the steakhouse, 25 at Red Rock, and six people in the brewing company. And if we ever go big – hopefully global – my business will always be based in Western Mass. We’re a small business now, but we want to grow up and have our town grow with us.”

Wholesaling their beer to package stores and supermarkets – five different flavors in 64-ounce containers and four flavors in six-packs – could be the start of realizing those global ambitions.

“We’d like to get more flavors out to the market eventually,” Rizos said. “We’re all excited about the beer sales. When I go to a liquor store and see someone in front of me in line picking up one of our six-packs, that’s going to be a good feeling.”

Perhaps reason enough to shout, “opa!”