By Alec Harvey, The Birmingham News
September 26, 2012

Greg Pappas started making the tzatziki sauce for Birmingham’s Greek Festival in the late 1970s, he says. (Courtesy: The Birmingham News)

The gyro sandwich with tzatziki sauce has become one of the favorites on the menu at Birmingham’s annual Greek Festival, thanks in no small part to restaurateur Greg Pappas.

Pappas, the chef and owner of Pappas’ Grill in Vestavia Hills, started preparing the tzatziki sauce for the festival in the late 1970s, and he’s doing it again for this year’s festival, which starts Thursday and continues through Saturday at the Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

The creamy, yogurt-and-cucumber-based sauce accompanies the gryos, which feature slices of seasoned beef and lamb topped with lettuce and rolled in warm pita bread.

Along with Pete Graphos, who founded the Sneaky Pete’s hot dog chain, Pappas says he helped introduce gyros to Birmingham diners when he and Graphos began serving them to their customers about 40 years ago. At the time, Pappas ran the Sneaky Pete’s location at the old Eastwood Mall.

It was around that same time that his mother, Blanche Pappas, served as the chair of the Greek Festival, Pappas says, and he suggested gyros would be a great addition to the festival menu.

“They were always looking for different things to do (at the festival) as it was growing,” Pappas recalls. “So we did the gyros, and it was a big hit. And we’ve been doing it every since.”

The recipe has evolved over the years, Pappas says.

“I got it out of a Greek cookbook years ago, and I’ve adapted it ever since, just enhancing it with different spices,” he says. “After a few years, I got it where I wanted it.”

That first year, Pappas prepared five gallons of tzatziki sauce for the festival. This year, he’s made 45 gallons.

It’s the same tzatziki sauce that he serves with the gyros at his restaurant, where he typically goes through about five gallons a week.

“My customers over the years tell me that I have the best tzatziki sauce there is,” Pappas says. “I don’t know what makes mine special over everybody’s else, but I get a lot of favorable comments on it daily.”

Pappas, whose parents came to America from Greece, grew up in Crestwood and graduated from Phillips High School in 1966.

He got started in the restaurant business when Graphos hired him to help out at Sneaky Pete’s while Pappas was a college student at Auburn University.

“I worked for him on weekends throughout college and just fell in love with the food business,” Pappas says. “So when I got out of Auburn and the Army, I wanted to open up a hot dog stand, and that’s what I did.”

Pappas ran the Eastwood Mall location of Sneaky Pete’s from 1974 until 1986, and after that, he worked with Connie Kanakis and John Ed Willoughby for six years at their Italian restaurant Rossi’s.

Then, in 1992, Pappas and his wife, Pat, opened a place of their own in the Vestavia Hills Plaza shopping center.

Next month, Pappas’ Grill will celebrate its 20th year in business in that same location.

So they must be doing something right.

Just don’t ask Pappas to share the recipe for the tzatziki sauce.

That’s his little secret.


Birmingham Greek Festival

When: Thursday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m.

Where: Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Cathedral, 307 19th St. South.

Info: www.birminghamgreekfestival.net


* Original article: http://blog.al.com/living-news/2012/09/restaurateur_greg_pappas_prepa.html