Restaurant celebrates 50 many years of enterprise

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Angelo Ballas was scheduling a large occasion this calendar year to thank shoppers for the Grecian Corner’s 50 decades on the Winston-Salem restaurant scene.

That party is not taking place, but Ballas is thankful that people very same customers have continued to assistance the restaurant by a pandemic and likely its hardest yr nevertheless.

“We have wonderful customers,” Ballas claimed. “I’ve been touched by the way the community has been so supportive.”

Grecian Corner opened in December 1970 at 101 Eden Terrace, a shorter aspect road that connects Cloverdale Avenue and 1st Street, in the shadow of then N.C. Baptist Clinic, now Wake Forest Baptist Healthcare Middle.

Angelo’s uncle, Jimmy Ballas, opened Grecian Corner in 1970. Within just a 12 months or two he left to open up Zorba the Greek’s on Stratford Highway and turned Grecian Corner more than to his brother, George. For the next 30 yrs, George Ballas would be the facial area of Grecian Corner, so significantly so in the early 1990s, the indication was altered to George’s Grecian Corner — a moniker that carries on to this working day.

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In 1990, the restaurant was immortalized — disguised as a generic pizza joint — in a scene in “Mr. Future,” a person of the to start with big attribute films to be shot in Winston-Salem.

George Ballas, just one of numerous Greek immigrants in the Winston-Salem cafe enterprise, was the variety of fingers-on operator who cultivated consumer loyalty since he remembered anyone who passed by way of his doorways.

That attentiveness and a menu that made available some thing for everybody bred results. Grecian Corner constantly experienced regular stream of customers who relied on it for reasonably priced, consistent, family members pleasant fare.

George Ballas’ idea offered a combine of best hits — Greek, Italian and American delicacies. Some men and women arrived for the souvlaki and gyros. Others ordered the spaghetti, and nonetheless much more came for the warm puppies, hamburgers or sandwiches.

Angelo Ballas took about running the cafe in 2001, and he and his wife, Ga, formally turned the homeowners in 2002. George Ballas retired, then handed absent in 2008.

There was a brief-lived expansion into Clemmons from 2005 to 2007, but for the most component Angelo Ballas has focused on his core organization, retaining his uncle’s eyesight and his memory alive.

The menu at Grecian Corner has improved cherished very little more than the decades. It nonetheless delivers a veal cutlet sandwich ($4.50), a after well-known merchandise now very long neglected by quite a few other dining places. The spaghetti a la Venice ($8.95) — with onions, peppers, mushrooms and mozzarella — is however a greatest-vendor, although the Greek-fashion spaghetti with feta ($7.95) has its lovers, too. Other Italian merchandise consist of lasagna ($8.65) chicken veal and eggplant Parmesan ($8.95 each).

The most popular merchandise on the menu is the chicken souvlaki plate with a Greek salad ($11.80), even though for a long time the restaurant bought only the traditional pork souvlaki. “Individuals bugged my uncle for a extensive time to insert the rooster souvlaki,” Angelo Ballas said. “Now it outsells the pork 10 to 1.”

Other Greek objects include the gyro ($6.85), moussaka ($8.95) and spanakopita ($5.85). The spanakopita is a comparatively current addition below Angelo Ballas’ tenure, as is the well known avgolemono (Greek lemon soup ($4.25).

Grecian Corner sells very a couple warm canines (now Nathan’s all-beef dogs). Other sandwiches include steak hoagie, BLT, Reuben and hummus pita.

Just in situation none of that appeals to diners, Grecian corner also sells a selection of pizzas, ($9.65 to $13.14 for a 12-inch).

A couple of newish goods include a hen pesto pita, sweet potato waffle chips and cranberry pecan salad, but most of the food items is just as George Ballas envisioned again in the 1970s. “About 90 per cent is likely unchanged,” Angelo Ballas said.

Only a couple other things have changed around 50 a long time. The restaurant is rather modest — it opened as a Minnie Pearl fried hen cafe in 1969 in advance of the Ballas family members took it more than. The Ballases managed to squeeze in about 50 seats in the original creating, fondly referred to as “cozy.”

In 2013, Angelo Ballas embarked on a major renovation. The bogs finally have been obtainable from within the cafe. “That was large for us,” he said. “For 43 decades, persons experienced to go outside the house when it was 30 degrees to use the toilet.”

He also crafted a new dining area on the facet, raising the seating to 80. He even tinkered with the plan of moving the cafe up coming door to the previous Pier One creating on To start with Avenue. “But when I talked about it to clients, they stated, ‘No, never go it!'”

Yet another big adjust was the acceptance of credit score cards in 2015. “For 45 several years, we were being funds-only,” Ballas stated. “When we added credit score cards, I had to place it on the indication out front, since no a person considered it.”

Regardless of the updates, Grecian Corner retained its ambiance as a “uncomplicated, comfortable tiny place,” as Ballas described it, and which is just how buyers like it.

Ann Jones has been coming to Grecian Corner for 48 of her 86 yrs. She would eat there often five periods a week. Although she’s not taking in in the dining place all through the pandemic, she however phone calls in to-go orders, and she cannot wait to get back again. “I pass up it really a great deal. I miss the individuals. I was very near to George and his spouse, Loula, and Angelo is an extraordinary particular person, much too. They have been like relatives.”

Anne Butler mentioned she has been heading about the moment a 7 days given that the 1980s. “I always get the chicken souvlaki platter with the Greek salad,” she mentioned. “It truly is good food. It’s consistent. I know what I am acquiring. The personnel is aware of my title. They know I like my tea unsweetened. They really consider treatment of their customers. It is really just an simple put to get a very good food.”

Linda Hill and her late husband, Gene, built it their go-to restaurant for a long time, partly due to the fact they lived just two blocks away in the West Highlands neighborhood. “This has been our community hangout for 38 a long time,” she claimed. “We have celebrated anniversaries there. We have celebrated birthdays. My little ones grew up taking in there.”

She recalled that, when Gene Hill died 4 several years back, Angelo showed up unannounced with a carful of meals.

“He brought pans of rooster souvlaki, pita, jugs of iced tea and flowers. They’re just particularly generous individuals,” Hill stated.

This spring, regular clients these kinds of as Borgia Walker placed massive orders for takeout to go to charities, this kind of as the Bethesda Heart for the Homeless. Chris Clifton of Grace, Clifton and Tisdale purchased more than enough food stuff to feed dozens of legislation-enforcement officers. Typically, Ballas would kick in his have contribution, as well, knocking 10 or 20% off the invoice for this kind of donations.

Consumers have actually stuck with the cafe via the pandemic, Ballas mentioned.

“We’ve been blessed,” reported standard manager Denise Decker, who has labored at Grecian Corner for 15 decades. “People today have acquired present cards. Some of our regulars come get food to go two or three situations a 7 days just to support us out.”

To thank this sort of clients, Angelo Ballas experienced hoped to toss a celebration this month, setting up tents in the parking whole lot and cooking up a feast. Rather, he is coping with a pandemic, government limitations and a nervous eating general public.

Grecian Corner has not closed at all all through the pandemic, but it did shut the eating area from mid-March to Aug. 31 — extended just after he was allowed to open. “I waited, for the reason that I wished to see what was the safest and very best factor to do. There was a great deal we did not know early on, so I didn’t really feel at ease opening the eating room,” Ballas stated.

A single of the first matters Ballas did was set Plexiglas throughout the front counter to separate consumers and personnel.

When he opened the eating area, he established a separate entrance for takeout and eating-in shoppers to keep away from bottlenecks. The restaurant is continue to cozy, although, so with covid-19 social distancing, it has only 6 or 7 tables readily available.

But takeout often has been a significant section of Grecian Corner’s organization. “Usually, we were being 35% takeout. So for us going from 35% to 100% takeout was not tricky when the eating place was shut. Our menu lends by itself it being takeout-friendly. We just ramped it up.”

Now, even with the eating home open, takeout is about 75% of organization.

A person of the key factors of Grecian Corner’s takeout company has constantly been the clinical middle. “The hospital has been a great neighbor,” Ballas reported. He stated he also draws a good deal of customers from the Ardmore neighborhood on 1 side and Buena Vista on the other.

Continue to, like most restaurants, Grecian Corner is getting a rough year. “Catering (or lack of it) has experienced the largest influence,” Ballas stated. “Because I am a tiny cafe, catering was like filling all those additional seats we failed to have. You will find funds in catering, since you you should not have as much overhead, but I shed all that this spring — catering for pharmaceutical reps, for Wake Forest athletics.”

He reported he has managed to maintain his workers at about 15 men and women, even though they may get fewer hrs these days.

“Company has dropped, but I’ve experimented with to continue to keep as many folks as I can,” he explained. “We got a PPP (Paycheck Protection Software loan), which was a lifesaver for about a few months. At this issue, we are just seeking to look at charges, enjoy foodstuff charges, continue to keep stock degrees ideal — just tightening our belt a minimal bit.”

Like other restaurateurs, he hopes these types of measures will be enough to preserve him going a few more months, till the pandemic starts to fade.

“We’re just making an attempt to keep on and get again to regular, or whatever ordinary is heading to be,” Ballas stated.

But he’s not complaining. He has a wonderful team. He has loyal buyers. And he has 50 decades below his belt.

“Consistency would be the major detail,” he said in detailing the restaurant’s accomplishment. “Not just the food stuff, but the men and women – owning fantastic workers is substantial. And we have been fortunate this yr that the menu lends alone to takeout.”

Nonetheless he won’t choose everything for granted. “We have been close to for 50 yrs. But in this organization you have to preserve on your toes.”

Angelo Ballas, owner of the Grecian Corner, stands for a portrait in entrance of his cafe Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020 in Winston-Salem, N.C., which is celebrating its 50th anniversary. (Andrew Dye/The Winston-Salem Journal by means of AP)

The booth the place a scene from “Mr. Destiny” was filmed at the Grecian Corner is proven Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020 in Winston-Salem, N.C. The booth functions a collage of pictures from the filming of the film. (Andrew Dye/The Winston-Salem Journal via AP)