Bad news yet again. From El Greco's Facebook status:
Thank you from the Karayiannis family for all of your patronage over the past 35+ years. El Greco is changing ownership and will unfortunately be closed as of tonight. Stop in for your last gyro fix - we are open until 9pm.
Line of 20+ plus people was stretching out the door past Old Towne Liquors about 6 p.m. and the restaurant ran out of food about 8 p.m. Ownership of both it and Old Towne have changed hands after 35+ years. Purchased by the owner of Bluefish Liquor and Cigars. No indication as to what will happen with the pair of businesses. Hazarding a guess, I would bet the wall gets knocked out and Old Towne expanded, possibly onto the vacant American Tap lot next door.
Several years ago, I was told by someone in a position to know that El Greco broke even at best and needed to see a significant increase in sales to justify remaining open. Apparently, much like the Mississippi Flyway, customers waited until the announcement of the closing before patronizing them in numbers sufficient to keep the business open. Important to remember if there is a restaurant (or other business) you really like and want to stay around, spend money there now and encourage others to do so as well, otherwise it may follow in the tracks of El Greco, the Flyway, El Baijo and others. A restaurant announces its closing after sales have declined consistently over a long period of time. Generally, they can work their way through a bad month or two, but it is very hard for a small business to come back from several years of declining sales.
El Greco was pretty weak, in my husband's opinion, in terms of providing good value for the money or good food. El Bajio was simply awful, I ate there once and refused to go back. I know a number of people who got food poisoning there. Mississippi Flyway is less than one mile from my house, and I ate there probably 5 times in 8 years. Their food quality was largely mediocre. I for one won't miss these places, though I am sad that local businesses aren't succeeding. Maybe it is inherent in the nature of food service that you have to cut many corners to stay in business, but when you're selling food and your food is unpalatable, that's a problem in my book! In my book, the only restaurants in town that I'll eat at if it's up to me are Longbranch, Paglia's, Global Gourmet, and Don Taco. If a friend is suggesting, I'll acquiesce to Quattro's, Tres Hombres, Thai Taste and Hunan. I'm pretty sure I'm a food snob, but there's no point in paying for crap.
ReplyDeleteOh, I agree with you. If you don't like the restaurant, don't eat there. I do think it wrong when people say how great the food was and how horrible it is they are closing, but seldom or never eat there.
ReplyDeleteI ate at El Greco's fairly often, my favorite fast food Greek place, even after sampling many in the big cities of the West. It could have been less greasy, but what are you going to do? I miss the onion rings and mushrooms already. Why isn't Lance doing as well? El Bajio and Mississippi Flyway were just bad at the end. El Greco's situation seems more that the owners had carried the ball for 40 years (!!!), and got an offer they couldn't refuse. I hope it reopens, I don't think they need the room for the liquor store, but who knows? Can you imagine the lost value in brand and commercial kitchen if you didn't reopen?
ReplyDeleteI'm always amazed by people who like Pag's better then Quatro's. I was happy with both 30 years ago, but the quality of groceries at Pag's doesn't seem to be as good anymore. Salad quality? Quatro's is much better. Sandwiches, Quatro's is much better. Stay away from Quatro's thin crust, it isn't as good. Here is a tip of the hat to any pizza place that is still buying the very best cheese.
The thing that makes me think Patel may choose to expand Old Towne instead of re-opening El Grecos is that he has experience in running a liquor and tobacco shop, while none, of which I know, in running a restaurant. Should he go with his strength and expand the also strong Old Towne brand or work to maintain both of them? WE should know if El Grecos re-opens within the promised few days.
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