It is Brooklyn’s unsung gyro!
Souvlaki House has been a fixture of Downtown’s dining scene for more than 40 years, serving up a trip back in time alongside its signature dish.
The tiny Greek grill on Lawrence Street off Fulton Mall houses a mural celebrating the Athens 2004 Olympics, posters of Hellenic cuisine that have been on the wall since the ’80s, and customers and employees who have been there even longer than that, according to one longtime worker.
“Eighty percent of customers are regulars,” said Tom Georgakopoulos, who has been working at the eatery since 1976, alongside manager Peter Delkos. “We have customers who first came when they were five or 10 years old and now they bring their kids.”
The Souvlaki House menu has also changed very little since owner Theo Karabelas first opened the doors in 1972, and its namesake dish remains its best — a juicy combination of lamb and beef shaved off a rotating spit, slathered in gravy or a slightly-sweet house-made white sauce, and served on top of salad and fries or stuffed inside a pita.
The counter also offers burgers and breakfast sandwiches, but fans say you can’t go past the gyrating grub.
“You can’t come Downtown and not get a gyro from here,” said 47-year-old Fort Greene resident Iesha Conley, who remembers eating at Souvlaki House as a kid before seeing a movie at the old Duffield Theatre on its eponymous street nearby. “Once you have your first gyro here, you’ll be coming back every week for the rest of your life.”
But customers don’t just return for the grilled meat and freshly-fried falafel, said Georgokopoulos — they come back the familiar faces on both sides of the counter.
“We’ve got good food, the prices are low, good service, these people have known us for 45 years,” he said.
One customer claims to have been gracing the venue’s well-worn vinyl stools since it first opened.
“I’ve been eating here since before you were born,” said 91-year-old Tommy — who refused to give his last name — gesturing at half the people in the restaurant, before pointing at Delkos. “And since this guy was a young kid.”
The eatery has weathered many changes in the neighborhood over the years — from the high-crime era of the 1970s and ’80s, though the completion of the nearby MetroTech office complex in the ’90s, to the rash of new residential high-rises, hotels, and retail chains popping up now.
But the area’s booming popularity has not been a boon for the business, Delkos said, as newer eateries have muscled in nearby, creating more competition.
“Before, there used to be few restaurants, now there are hundreds, the customers are spread around now,” he said.
Business has almost halved over the past few decades, he said — as has the number of spinning souvlaki stacks the diner carves up each day.
“We used to sell three or four of these a day,” said Delkos. “Now maybe one and a half.”
Souvlaki House [158 Lawrence St. between Fulton and Willoughby streets Downtown, (718) 852–0443].
