Apola Greek Grill has four locations open in California.
Apola Greek Grill is serving customers food just like mom used to make—if you grew up in Greece, that is.
Founder Yianni Kosmides and his brother were born in the United States, but were raised in Greece. He thinks fondly of the local cuisine. “It’s your comfort food, your quick meal, the late night junk food or the food you get before you go to the movies,” Kosmides said. “It satisfies all those categories.”
When the brothers moved back to the United States for college, they didn’t find any authentic Greek food and so launched Apola—Greek for “the works”—in 2017.
The franchise boasts “the most authentic Greek gyro you can get without buying a plane ticket.” The line-style restaurant serves pita sandwiches, plates, bowls and salads, with options such as chicken breast souvlaki, falafel or, Kosmides’ favorite, pork gyro.
Apola Greek Grill serves a variety of authentic Greek menu options.
“We don’t consider ourselves Mediterranean. There’s a wide range of other restaurants that try to be all-inclusive and Mediterranean,” Kosmides said. “We just focus on what’s truly, truly authentic Greek.”
In the United States, lamb and beef are typically associated with gyros. In northern Greece, where Kosmides is from, pork is more traditional. At Apola, the menu features pork belly, which Kosmides said is more flavorful. “We spend the extra money to get the better product,” he said.
His go-to? A pork pita sandwich with eggplant spread, mustard and French fries. That’s been his favorite since he was a teenager.
Apola prides itself on being authentic—down to the brand of table salt used in-house. “If you get something in the restaurant, it’s how we either grew up eating it at home or how you would eat it in Greece,” Kosmides said.
Apola has four stores open in California, one of which is franchised. Another franchisee-owned location is on the way.
Kosmides has history opening restaurants, with businesses such as Fantastic Café on Gaffey, Holiday Café and Mr. D’s Diner, all in California. Before Apola, he and his family never saw the appeal of franchising.
“We could never see the value. Why would someone franchise? We know how to open restaurants,” he said. “Then, as we got more into the franchise world … you see the power of franchising, that it helps franchisees and restaurant owners grow so much, because it takes so much off their plate.”
Apola is open to expanding nationwide with the right operators, Kosmides said. The franchise location, which opened in February, is in a food court, so the brand and franchisee weren’t expecting the same level of sales as one of the standalone stores, he said. The food court store has a shorter-term lease along with lower anticipated revenue. “Comparing their revenue to our inline stores, it’s not there, but it’s also not expected,” Kosmides said.
The initial investment required to open an Apola store ranges from $98,000 to $549,000. In 2021, the two corporate stores reported gross sales of $820,421 and $1 million.
Apola signed a third franchisee and plans to open another two corporate stores this year. “Ideally, our goal is to get minimum two or three open for the year to test out our franchise systems, and see what else we have to learn,” he said. “We’re not franchisors by nature. We’re restaurant operators. So, this is a whole new experience for us.”