Theodore Kyriakou, chef-proprietor of the Real Greek and the Real Greek Souvlaki & Bar in London's Hoxton district, is to open a third restaurant on the South Bank of the River Thames.
Sited just 50m from Shakespeare's Globe theatre near Southwark Bridge, the new restaurant will occupy a ground-floor site. It will also be called the Real Greek Souvlaki & Bar. Kyriakou and his business partners Paloma Campbell and Mike Yates have been working together on the project, which they hope will experience the same level of success as their existing two restaurants.
Kyriakou told Caterer that, although he aimed to use the Souvlaki bar as a loose model for the new restaurant, he does not intend to create a clone. He said: "We're not in business to create lots of identical twins. I'm more interested in doing Greek street food there. There's a hole in the London market in that area for this type of food. People don't always want to spend £40 when they go out, so we're aiming for a £15-£20 spend."
He added that he planned to put in a delicatessen as part of the kitchen, from which customers could buy food from the restaurant's menu to take away. Kyriakou anticipates that he will split his time between cooking at the Real Greek and the new site.
He continued: "My base will still be in Hoxton, but it will probably become a 'no-go zone' for the first five or six weeks after the new site opens and until it can stand on its own feet. Then I will leave it alone. It's not far to zoom down from Hoxton on the motorbike."
The Real Greek Souvlaki & Bar on the South Bank is due to open in July.