“It doesn’t matter how busy it is – or how slow – if you come in every day and execute like it’s day one, and you do that every day, over and over again, you’ll be successful.”
Nico Tiginagas smiled as he shared the philosophy that has made his restaurant, Gyrosa, a neighbourhood favourite.
Serving up a variety of deliciously fresh Greek delights in generous portions, Gyrosa has been in operation at its Admirals Road location for two years and has recently opened a second location in the Royall Oak Shopping Centre on West Saanich Road.
Tiginagas and his partners, Adrian Bears and Troy Nye share their commitment to quality and have a simple approach to what can be a very tough business.
“If we can provide our community with a consistently high-quality product while at the same time make our team happy, pay them well, and feed them well, well, then we’ve made our community a better place,” said Tiginagas. “It we do that, then we’ve hit all the marks and, doing that, you’re always going to be successful.”
“Our vision was to have a mid-tier restaurant, somewhere between fast food and formal sit-down, that provided quick service on a product that had consistently excellent quality,” said Bears. “And we have a tremendous team who genuinely love the business and are committed to providing a high level of service. We will never expand our operation until we have that in place.”
Glancing over at the counter, Bears smiled at the young lady working there.
“Take Monica over there. We’ve known her since she was a newborn, and now she works with us. She’s great and the customers know and trust that she’s going to give them the best service and a great product,” said Bears. “We, all of us, work every day to earn the trust of our customers.”
In fact, the partners at Gyrosa are constantly discussing what needs to happen for that trust to be maintained.
“We talk all the time about how to make the restaurant even better,” said Tiginagas. “We look at our product and we look at the numbers. There are restaurants that I know of where they’ve had lineups out the door and they’ve had to close because they lost track of the numbers, or they’ve expanded too fast without a good team and ended up with a lacklustre location. People and product and keeping track of the numbers…they all play a part.”
As if to emphasize the point, a customer spies Tiginagas and Bears and makes her way over to our table to ask about a menu item.
“I love that lemon rice and wish you’d bring it back to the way it was. The food here is still really great, but I miss that rice,” she said. “I’d come here every day just for that.”
Tiginagas smiles broadly and takes the time to assure the customer that the much-loved rice will be returning very soon. He tells her how they changed from a chicken stock to a veggie stock, but will be responding to customers to bring back an option with the original flavour.
“See, that’s what I mean,” said Bears. “If you care about your customers and you listen to them, it can really make a difference.
“The restaurant business can be hard, but with the right approach not only to the business but to life, that positive energy and success will always be there.”
