Steve Christodoulides said his son has been in the restaurant business since he was born.
Before his son, George, turned a year old, Steve cradled him in one arm while cooking food with the other at his family-run restaurant.
Slow start for Spartan Gyros
Studio art seniors Amna Asghar, left, and Anthony Reach enjoy their lunch at Spartan Gyros, 565 E. Grand River Ave., Tuesday afternoon. Spartan Gyros opened Thursday.
The father and son, who is now 19 years old, co-own Spartan Gyros, 565 E. Grand River Ave.
“I’ve been working for my dad since I was 6 years old,” George Christodoulides said. “I started off at the register, moved my way up to the kitchen and have been doing this my whole life.”
Spartan Gyros marks the sixth restaurant run by Steve Christodoulides and his family, including the second in Michigan under the same name. Of the five other restaurants the family has operated, three are still open and ran by family members.
George Christodoulides said running a restaurant is time consuming.
“I wish I had more free time, but you can’t let the restaurant run itself,” he said. “We’ve had our disagreements, but the one thing we can agree on is the cooking.”
While the father and son don’t face differences with the food, their gyro meat differs from others in East Lansing, they said. Other restaurants use pre-cooked slices of beef and lamb gyro meat, George Christodoulides said. Spartan Gyros meat is shaved off of two-feet tall, 40-pound cones of meat sizzling on rotisseries.
“The meat is juicier and fresh,” he said. “The other stuff that’s pre-cooked and warmed up — there’s no taste to it.”
Of the several restaurants the family has owned, the East Lansing Spartan Gyros has been one of the slower-starting stores, George Christodoulides said. The store hasn’t eclipsed 1,000 customers a day. Some of the family’s other stores brought in more than 3,000 a day, he said.
“I think a lot of people, because this building was closed so long and they were wondering when we were going to open, they sort of gave up on us,” he said.
The restaurant building was vacant for more than a year when Taco Bell moved to 602 E. Grand River Ave. Construction and inspection difficulties delayed Spartan Gyros opening, George Christodoulides said.
Michael Sabor, an industrial mathematics master’s student, stopped to eye the menu taped to the window Tuesday.
“I’m a fan of gyros, so I will go there eventually,” he said.
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To bring students inside, the Christodoulides’ will introduce specials and add menu items.
“It’s been nerve-racking because of all the time and work we’ve put into this, but we’re looking forward to this,” George Christodoulides said.
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