Retail: Gussy’s Greek Street Food opening Durham restaurant
Having his own kitchen will make Gus Megaloudis’ life a little easier.
On Tuesday, the father of four and co-owner of the Gussy’s Greek Street Food truck and the on-hiatus Greek Devil food cart, will open Gussy’s Place, a restaurant in Durham where he can expand his menu and prepare food for his mobile units without having to work out of a commissary.
Working in a shared kitchen means his food prep hours are limited and he has to constantly work around others’ schedules.
“We have to come out of a commissary,” Megaloudis said about the truck’s food. “Working it out with others, with certain time slots. ... We are trying to make our lives easier, we’ll be on our own schedule and will be prepping now all day.”
Gussy’s Place will serve some of the same foods as the truck – gyros, soups, falafel, stuffed grape leaves, pita and hummus, Greek fries with lemon, oregano and sea salt, and baklava – along with daily specials of authentic Greek dishes like lasagna, meatballs, pizza and quiche.
Prices will range from about $4.50 for a side item to about $14 for a 16-ounce pork steak with fries, a salad and a pita.
The restaurant will also carry ice cream from the nearby The Freezing Pointe ice cream shop.
The 2,000-square-foot space will seat about 50 and will be open for lunch from 10:30 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Even with his own place, Megaloudis will continue to share his kitchen with another food truck: Bagguettaboutit, which operated a lunchtime cafe in the Gussy’s Place spot until March after the death of its owner, Chris Derby.
“Bagguettaboutit is also using our kitchen in the back as their commissary,” said Megaloudis, who co-owns Gussy’s with his wife, Yael. “Two trucks coming out of here really.”
Megaloudis is also in the process of getting his Greek Devil food cart back to Duke University. About a year ago, he stopped servicing the cart, which opened in 2008, after construction on campus caused a decrease in foot traffic.
He hopes to be back on the Duke sidewalks at the beginning of the school year or after Christmas, he said, selling prepackaged foods such as salads, wraps, tzatziki and hummus.
Gussy’s Place will stay open late on its first day – from 10:30 a.m. until 8 p.m. – and a priest will be on hand to bless the place. Wednesday will mark the first day of its normal lunchtime schedule.
“We’ve been looking for a restaurant for two years,” Megaloudis said. “We have four kids ranging from 5 to 13. We’re not interested in operating a full-blown restaurant.”
Gussy’s Place is at 2945 S. Miami Blvd. in Durham.
PR @ The Poole, the second location of the ever-popular Player’s Retreat restaurant and bar, has closed.
Gus Gusler opened the 4,700-square-foot restaurant and event space at N.C. State University’s Lonnie Poole Golf Course clubhouse in January 2014, too late to take advantage of the year’s wedding season, he said.
“(Events are) the very thing that’s going to make this thing work, and we missed an entire season and a half,” Gusler said.
The golf course’s clubhouse restaurant is now being managed by N.C. State’s dining services department, and events that had been booked through Gusler in the space that overlooks downtown Raleigh will be honored by the new operation.
Despite the closing of PR @ The Poole, Gusler says the original Player’s Retreat is still going strong.
In mid-June, Beth Littlejohn of Coquette Brasserie in Raleigh will take on the role of chef at the restaurant that’s been operating near the N.C. State campus since 1951.
There are no more HOT NOW doughnuts at Krispy Kreme in Chapel Hill. The store closed after it didn’t renew its lease at 157 E. Franklin St., but according to Lafeea Watson, the company’s manager of public relations and media relations, the North Carolina-based business is in the process of finding another area location.
This story was originally published May 21, 2015 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Retail: Gussy’s Greek Street Food opening Durham restaurant."