Column: Zorba’s Gyro celebrates golden anniversary with those ‘secret’ herbs and spices

Tommy Frangakis still can see those 49 customers who stopped by throughout the first day of business 50 years ago. 

His mind wanders to March 5, 1975. 

“I remember the faces, but I can’t remember the names,” Frangakis, 81, says about the afternoon when opening his Zorba’s Gyro restaurant along Raeford Road, across from Tallywood Shopping Center.  “When we first opened, they came to help support us, so we could make it.”

Frangakis will tell you he was apprehensive. 

The gyro was the signature staple on the menu. 

“I wanted to try something different,” Frangakis said. “Something somebody else didn’t have. I had the experience, and I had the confidence. But nobody back then had heard of the gyro. People would come in and say, ‘What’s that?’ I said, ‘Try it.’”

And so, those first customers did. 

Most townsfolks were more familiar and accustomed to a hamburger or cheeseburger with fries, Frangakis says, or perhaps a hamburger steak. 

But the gyro was something different, he says, and something new to the community.

It’s beef or lamb, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, a cucumber sauce wrapped in pita bread, Frangakis says, with 11 herbs and spices.

“It’s a secret,” Frangakis said about those herbs and spices. 

He may not remember the names of those first customers, but Tommy Frangakis remembers their faces, and what they thought of his gyros. 

“They said, ‘It’s good,’” he recalls. 

The gyro then cost $1.85. Today, a gyro goes for $7.25 at the restaurant. But not this day, where the gyro from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. is going for $4.99 in celebration of the popular restaurant’s golden anniversary at 2919 Raeford Road and at the Zorba’s Gyro location at 3114 N. Main St. in Hope Mills that opened in 2008. 

And just so you might want to know, the Greek spaghetti that regularly is $7.75 is going for $4.50.

It’s a family business where Frangakis’ wife, Marina, sons John, Deno and daughter Elaine have been a part of it most of their lives either behind the grill or waiting tables. Today, John Frangakis manages the businesses as he follows in his father’s restaurant footsteps. 

“My mom would tell people my dad was working all the time,” John Frangakis, 51, said. “But we all knew he was working for us. We’d say, ‘Where’s dad?’ He was working to put a roof over our heads.”

Along his restaurant way

Tommy Frangakis immigrated to Fayetteville in 1958, coming here from his native home of Klapsi in central northern Greece. His late father, also John Frangakis, worked in the restaurant business for the late Cleo Katsoudas at Cleo’s U.S. Café along Hay Street downtown. 

Tommy Frangakis worked at Deno’s Steak House near Eutaw Shopping Center and later the Burger House on Bragg Boulevard before working for 12 years at Cleo’s U.S. Café off and on from 1962 to 1972 before opening his own restaurant on Bragg Boulevard. 

“I had a little pancake house,” Frangakis said. “You know, where the 50-foot gorilla replica was.”

Flipping flapjacks was good.

But the gyro was calling Tommy Frangakis’ name, which is when in 1974 he remodeled what once was a Pure gas station into Zorba’s Gryro.

“It was self-service at first,” he said. “People would order, sit down and eat.”

The restaurant, he says, began opening for breakfast in 1987. 

“That’s when we went to table service,” Frangakis said. 

The business flourished all the more. These days, you’ll find the restaurant parking lot full from breakfast that begins at 6 a.m. to lunch to dinner. It’s a restaurant where customers have come to know waitresses and cooks and the Frangakis family by name, and the waitresses, cooks and Frangakis’ know the customers by name, too. 

Bill McGee is one of those customers. 

“I remember when he opened the doors,” McGee said Tuesday. “I come with my wife and family on Sundays. It’s been a pleasure to eat here. Tommy’s got a good business, and he hasn’t changed since day one.”

‘The way we want to be treated’

Tommy Frangakis is a congenial man with a simple philosophy when it comes to owning a restaurant. 

“I try to do what’s right for people,” he said. “Like my son, John, has said, ‘If we don’t eat it, we don’t sell it.’ We treat people the way we want to be treated. That’s my success story. That’s what got us here.”

Tommy Frangakis is excited about Wednesday and looking forward to welcoming longtime customers that over the years have included business folks, doctors, lawyers, teachers and just about anyone with an appetite.

Marina Frankagis is looking forward to this anniversary day, too. 

“I’m excited for my husband,” she said. 

Much like Tommy Frangakis was 50 years ago, he’ll tell you that he’s a bit nervous. 

“I don’t know if we can accommodate everybody,” he said in anticipation of what could be around 1,500 customers throughout the business day. “I think we’ll be all right.”

Frangakis has retired from the daily routine of being here hours on end. 

“It’s been a good business, and my son John is doing a bang-up job,” he said. “I’m retired. I just come in for the free coffee.”

Epilogue

Tommy Frangakis acknowledges two customers leaving the restaurant Tuesday after an early lunch. 

“Take care, Anthony and Jamie,” he said.

They looked his way. 

“See you tomorrow, Tommy,” they said. 

And that’s just how it is from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays at Zorba’s Gyro, and Tommy Frangakis would have it no other way. 

Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.

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