Katy – Just West of Houston, you can find a little blue building serving up some big Greek American flavors called Pappa Gyros. Known for gyros and souvlaki, Pappa Gyros has all sorts of dishes including Italian beef sandwiches and some serious hot dogs!
“We pride ourselves in doing it right,” said owner Christos Batsios, who comes from a Greek family but grew up in Michigan. Despite the fact he moved to Texas at the age of 22, he still hasn’t found his twang yet. “Been down here in Texas about, actually 12 years now,” said Christos. “Even up north, they give me a hard time. I learned to speak English from Greeks in Michigan. So even up there, where are you from, Chris? I don’t know. It’s tough.”
Since 1967, his family has been in the restaurant business, but they all left for the Lone Star State before Christos did. “My parents had come down here first,” said Christos. “I’d visit during the holidays and I’d see what was going on down here, how great the economy was, number one, how friendly the people were, and then I’d look at the weather. I said ‘man, I’m leaving the tundra. I’m coming down here in December.’ It’s a nice 60-degree weather some days. I said, ‘man, why am I up there alone? I need to get down here.’”
Eventually he did, and not long after in 2015 he opened Pappa Gyros in a gas station with a menu that included Greek food as well as some offerings that folks from up North are more accustomed to. “It’s an eclectic menu,” said Christos. “We’ve got Greek dishes that you’d expect to see in any Greek restaurant, all family recipe, things like moussaka, pastitsio the Greek lasagna, gyros of course, which are a staple. But also, we have those popular foods from the Midwest. We serve the different style hot dogs. We’ve got the Italian beef and other great items, Philly cheese steaks, Greek salads. We’ve got something for everybody here.”
Christos friendly face is always around in one way or another to greet the patrons of Pappa Gyros, but the face on the sign outside doesn’t quite represent Christos appearance these days. Christos has been on a weight loss journey for about a year, and his progress has been enough to make himself unrecognizable to some of the long time customers at his shop. When asked who it was on the logo, Christos said “That’s me. I’ve lost some weight. I started a journey last year. I’m down so far 175 pounds, And I had gotten up to 400 plus. It was tough.” This change combined with a new clean shaved look means it might be time to redo the logo. “Well, I tell you, we may get up there with some white paint, kind of fix it up,” joked Christos. “No, just kidding.”
We’ve established that Christos is a great guy, who’s doing great things for himself and the community, but at the end of the day the only real mark of a great restaurant is the food, and customers seem to give Pappa Gyros an A-plus. “It speaks for itself,” said Ptack. “He doesn’t ever strike out,” said Steven “Hub” Randle, another Pappa customer. “He always hits a home run.”
Pappa Gyros menu offerings include a Chicago Italian beef sandwich, a gyro style Philly cheesesteak, and a Greek pork souvlaki. The Italian beef sandwich consists of slow roasted top sirloin piled onto a 7-inch roll and topped with an Italian pepper relish called giardiniera, which invites some sweet heat to the party. The real magic happens when you dip the sandwich in the beef drippings, says Christos, and Italians have created a scientific method for consuming such a messy sandwich. “That’s the drippings from the roast,” said Christos. “As you see, we load them up. You dip that whole sandwich. There’s actually a special way to eat this sandwich. They call it the Italian stance, and what that is, elbows on the table, legs out 45 degree angle so as not to get anything on the shirt or the shoes.”
If you manage to conquer the Chicago Italian beef sandwich, you can swing back around to try out the crossover between a lamb gyro and a cheesesteak known as “Philly the Greek.” Lamb gyro is grilled on the flattop with mozzarella cheese and chopped up before it’s added to a pita bread and topped with grilled onions and peppers before Christos adds the final touches. “Now that that’s nice and melted and loaded onto our pita and then we hit it with our special chipotle remoulade,” said Christos. “That’s got fresh chipotle peppers, and then we blend it together with a little lemon juice, a little bit of mayonnaise, like an aioli. And so, it’s got a little bit of smokiness, a little bit of zestiness, but it really adds to the flavor of the sandwich.”
Finally, Christos really taps into Greek tradition for the Greek pork souvlaki. “This is pork tenderloin that’s been marinated in Greek herbs and spices, and we marinate our meat for a minimum of two days,” said Christos. The skewers are grilled and combined with a Greek salad, rice pilaf, and topped with olive oil dressing, tomatoes and onions. Altogether the plate represents what makes Greek food so spectacular, and it manages to stand out as a classic amongst a menu full of culinary creativity.
Christos’ love of food, service and community really shines both through his dishes and his role in his community. “It’s an awesome feeling to know that they love our food and we’re able to feed them and give them great service,” said Christos. “The Greek hospitality, it’s awesome.”