Restaurant celebrates 50 several years of company

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Angelo Ballas was planning a huge bash this calendar year to thank prospects for the Grecian Corner’s 50 yrs on the Winston-Salem cafe scene.

That occasion is just not taking place, but Ballas is thankful that those people exact same clients have continued to assist the cafe by a pandemic and probably its hardest 12 months however.

“We have great clients,” Ballas said. “I have been touched by the way the community has been so supportive.”

Grecian Corner opened in December 1970 at 101 Eden Terrace, a small facet avenue that connects Cloverdale Avenue and First Avenue, in the shadow of then N.C. Baptist Hospital, now Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre.

Angelo’s uncle, Jimmy Ballas, opened Grecian Corner in 1970. In just a calendar year or two he still left to open Zorba the Greek’s on Stratford Highway and turned Grecian Corner in excess of to his brother, George. For the next 30 decades, George Ballas would be the confront of Grecian Corner, so a great deal so in the early 1990s, the sign was transformed to George’s Grecian Corner — a moniker that continues to this day.

In 1990, the restaurant was immortalized — disguised as a generic pizza joint — in a scene in “Mr. Future,” one of the very first key aspect films to be shot in Winston-Salem.

George Ballas, one of several Greek immigrants in the Winston-Salem restaurant small business, was the kind of hands-on operator who cultivated consumer loyalty because he remembered every person who passed through his doorways.

That attentiveness and a menu that available some thing for all people bred achievements. Grecian Corner constantly experienced steady stream of shoppers who relied on it for economical, reliable, family members pleasant fare.

George Ballas’ notion made available a mix of biggest hits — Greek, Italian and American delicacies. Some men and women arrived for the souvlaki and gyros. Other folks ordered the spaghetti, and nonetheless additional came for the hot dogs, hamburgers or sandwiches.

Angelo Ballas took in excess of managing the cafe in 2001, and he and his wife, Georgia, formally became the proprietors in 2002. George Ballas retired, then handed absent in 2008.

There was a brief-lived growth into Clemmons from 2005 to 2007, but for the most portion Angelo Ballas has focused on his main business, retaining his uncle’s vision and his memory alive.

The menu at Grecian Corner has adjusted valuable very little about the many years. It nonetheless delivers a veal cutlet sandwich ($4.50), a after preferred product now lengthy forgotten by lots of other dining places. The spaghetti a la Venice ($8.95) — with onions, peppers, mushrooms and mozzarella — is even now a finest-seller, even though the Greek-model spaghetti with feta ($7.95) has its lovers, much too. Other Italian products consist of lasagna ($8.65) hen veal and eggplant Parmesan ($8.95 each).

The most common product on the menu is the rooster souvlaki plate with a Greek salad ($11.80), however for several years the restaurant sold only the common pork souvlaki. “Persons bugged my uncle for a extensive time to incorporate the chicken souvlaki,” Angelo Ballas explained. “Now it outsells the pork 10 to 1.”

Other Greek objects contain the gyro ($6.85), moussaka ($8.95) and spanakopita ($5.85). The spanakopita is a rather modern addition beneath Angelo Ballas’ tenure, as is the well-known avgolemono (Greek lemon soup ($4.25).

Grecian Corner sells fairly a number of warm puppies (now Nathan’s all-beef puppies). Other sandwiches involve steak hoagie, BLT, Reuben and hummus pita.

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

A pair of newish objects include a chicken pesto pita, sweet potato waffle chips and cranberry pecan salad, but most of the food is just as George Ballas envisioned back again in the 1970s. “About 90 % is in all probability unchanged,” Angelo Ballas mentioned.

Only a couple other issues have modified around 50 decades. The restaurant is pretty little — it opened as a Minnie Pearl fried chicken restaurant in 1969 ahead of the Ballas household took it about. The Ballases managed to squeeze in about 50 seats in the unique developing, fondly referred to as “cozy.”

In 2013, Angelo Ballas embarked on a major renovation. The bogs finally ended up obtainable from within the restaurant. “That was large for us,” he explained. “For 43 several years, folks had to go outside the house when it was 30 degrees to use the lavatory.”

He also constructed a new dining area on the aspect, rising the seating to 80. He even tinkered with the strategy of relocating the restaurant up coming doorway to the outdated Pier 1 setting up on First Avenue. “But when I outlined it to shoppers, they reported, ‘No, really don’t transfer it!'”

One more huge alter was the acceptance of credit history playing cards in 2015. “For 45 many years, we had been cash-only,” Ballas said. “When we added credit history playing cards, I had to put it on the sign out front, mainly because no just one thought it.”

Inspite of the updates, Grecian Corner retained its ambiance as a “simple, comfy very little put,” as Ballas described it, and which is just how clients like it.

Ann Jones has been coming to Grecian Corner for 48 of her 86 decades. She would eat there generally five times a week. Though she’s not eating in the eating space for the duration of the pandemic, she nevertheless calls in to-go orders, and she won’t be able to wait around to get back again. “I miss it quite considerably. I overlook the men and women. I was incredibly close to George and his spouse, Loula, and Angelo is an remarkable man or woman, as well. They’ve been like loved ones.”

Anne Butler said she has been heading about as soon as a week given that the 1980s. “I normally get the hen souvlaki platter with the Greek salad,” she mentioned. “It can be good food stuff. It can be constant. I know what I am acquiring. The workers is aware of my identify. They know I like my tea unsweetened. They definitely consider treatment of their consumers. It truly is just an straightforward spot to get a excellent meal.”

Linda Hill and her late spouse, Gene, produced it their go-to cafe for decades, partly mainly because they lived just two blocks away in the West Highlands community. “This has been our neighborhood hangout for 38 many years,” she explained. “We have celebrated anniversaries there. We have celebrated birthdays. My young children grew up having there.”

She recalled that, when Gene Hill died four yrs in the past, Angelo showed up unannounced with a carful of food stuff.

“He introduced pans of hen souvlaki, pita, jugs of iced tea and flowers. They’re just particularly generous individuals,” Hill claimed.

This spring, common shoppers these as Borgia Walker positioned significant orders for takeout to go to charities, such as the Bethesda Centre for the Homeless. Chris Clifton of Grace, Clifton and Tisdale purchased plenty of meals to feed dozens of regulation-enforcement officers. Normally, Ballas would kick in his possess contribution, as well, knocking 10 or 20% off the bill for these donations.

Shoppers have definitely stuck with the cafe as a result of the pandemic, Ballas mentioned.

“We have been blessed,” said basic supervisor Denise Decker, who has labored at Grecian Corner for 15 several years. “People have acquired present playing cards. Some of our regulars appear get meals to go two or three situations a 7 days just to enable us out.”

To thank these consumers, Angelo Ballas had hoped to throw a occasion this thirty day period, environment up tents in the parking lot and cooking up a feast. In its place, he is coping with a pandemic, governing administration limits and a anxious eating public.

Grecian Corner has not closed at all during the pandemic, but it did shut the eating place from mid-March to Aug. 31 — extensive immediately after he was authorized to open up. “I waited, simply because I required to see what was the safest and greatest detail to do. There was a whole lot we did not know early on, so I did not experience comfortable opening the dining room,” Ballas said.

A single of the 1st things Ballas did was set Plexiglas across the front counter to separate shoppers and workforce.

When he opened the eating home, he founded a separate entrance for takeout and eating-in customers to avoid bottlenecks. The restaurant is nonetheless cozy, while, so with covid-19 social distancing, it has only 6 or seven tables obtainable.

But takeout usually has been a major component of Grecian Corner’s business. “Typically, we had been 35% takeout. So for us going from 35% to 100% takeout was not tricky when the eating area was closed. Our menu lends by itself it getting takeout-pleasant. We just ramped it up.”

Now, even with the eating space open up, takeout is about 75% of business enterprise.

Just one of the important elements of Grecian Corner’s takeout business enterprise has always been the health-related middle. “The hospital has been a great neighbor,” Ballas claimed. He claimed he also draws a good deal of customers from the Ardmore community on just one side and Buena Vista on the other.

However, like most places to eat, Grecian Corner is acquiring a rough yr. “Catering (or lack of it) has had the most important impression,” Ballas stated. “Simply because I am a little cafe, catering was like filling those people excess seats we didn’t have. There is certainly cash in catering, simply because you will not have as considerably overhead, but I lost all that this spring — catering for pharmaceutical reps, for Wake Forest athletics.”

He reported he has managed to hold his personnel at about 15 folks, nevertheless they could get fewer several hours these times.

“Business enterprise has dropped, but I’ve tried to hold as numerous men and women as I can,” he explained. “We obtained a PPP (Paycheck Security Application financial loan), which was a lifesaver for about 3 months. At this issue, we’re just seeking to enjoy costs, check out foods expenditures, keep inventory ranges appropriate — just tightening our belt a tiny bit.”

Like other restaurateurs, he hopes these kinds of steps will be ample to continue to keep him going a number of additional months, until the pandemic begins to fade.

“We are just trying to keep on and get back to usual, or what ever standard is heading to be,” Ballas reported.

But he is not complaining. He has a great personnel. He has loyal customers. And he has 50 several years under his belt.

“Consistency would be the major thing,” he stated in explaining the restaurant’s results. “Not just the food, but the people – owning good team is substantial. And we’ve been lucky this yr that the menu lends alone to takeout.”

Nevertheless he would not consider just about anything for granted. “We have been close to for 50 many years. But in this enterprise you have to preserve on your toes.”

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

The booth where by a scene from “Mr. Future” was filmed at the Grecian Corner is demonstrated Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020 in Winston-Salem, N.C. The booth functions a collage of photos from the filming of the film. (Andrew Dye/The Winston-Salem Journal through AP)