Interview by Gainesville High senior and Abernathy Cochran intern Grady Vardeman
Meet Christos Nicolaou and George Giannoulas from the Alpha Gyro Grill on Jesse Jewell Parkway in Gainesville. The friends saw Gainesville as the ideal place to open a Greek restaurant while traveling back and forth from Greece and Hall County.
Finally, in 2017 they decided to settle down and combine forces and opened Alpha Gyro Greek restaurant that we know today!
Alpha Gyro Grill is a favorite of the Abernathy Cochran Group! Some of our favorite dishes for you to try is the Gyro Meat Salad (Rosemary Hancock), Chicken Skewers with Pita Bread and Eclairs (Robert Bell) and Grady Vardeman’s favorite dish is the Lemon Chicken Soup.
We want to thank Christos and George for telling us more about their life and love of Hall County.
Question: What inspired you or led you to your current career?
Answer: (C) “We’re two Greek immigrants and I’ve been back and forth now for about 37 years in Hall County. After finding what we thought was a good place, we opened up about two years ago and loved it since. Business is good, people are good so we’re happy.”
Q: What is your favorite restaurant in Hall County, and what do you love there?
A: (C) “I love the Atlanta Seafood Market.”
A: (G) “I like Atlas Pizza on the square and I like the four cheese pizza.”
Q: If you could travel anywhere in the world right now where would it be? And why?
A: (C) “I’ve never been to Scotland, I’d love to go and see the distilleries they have there.”
A: (G) “Mine would have to be Monaco.”
Q: Do you have a motto for your restaurant for your employees?
A: (C) “We don’t just want a happy customer, we want an enthusiastic customer that wants to come back and back again. We want to give them something they will want to come back to.”
Q: What is something on your bucket list?
A: (C) “Something on our bucket list that is in the works is the expansion of the restaurant. We plan to break down a couple of walls to do this. The business has been a blessing so I hope we can make it happen.”
Q: What is your favorite thing or something unique about Hall County?
A: (G) “The politeness of people in this city.”
Q: Where do you see yourself in five or 10 years?
A: (C) “To grow the business as much as we can. We have some people interested so I hope it happens.”
Q: What is something interesting that most people don’t know about you?
A: (G) “I once had another Greek restaurant before this.”
A: (C) “I’m very big into history. I have a library in my home with over 7,000 books, mostly over the WWII era.”
Q: What three words or phrases that come to mind when you think of the word HOME?
A: (C) “Sally, Edith, and Lucas.”