Louie Alexakis grew up working for his parents who owned a chain of hot dog stands in Chicago. In the early 1990s, he gained more hospitality experience working for his father-in-law’s concept in Chicago, called Greek Islands.
By 1995, he opened his own concept, wanting to present something more than “what everyone thought of Greek food.” He admitted, however, he still had a lot to learn, so he went back to Greek Islands until he was ready to launch Avli in 2009 in the Chicago suburb of Winnetka. The restaurant took off and by 2018, Alexakis teamed up with Chicago sportscaster Lou Canellis to open a second concept, called the Avli Taverna. There are now five Avli restaurants, including one in Milwaukee, as well as a fast casual concept called Time Out Market Chicago. And Alexakis is ready for more. Much more.
“It’s taken us a couple of years to get the right team together, but we’ve done it and we’re ready to expand our business,” he said during a recent interview. “We have two on the books to open in the next six to nine months.”
This expansion won’t be a bunch of Avli restaurants cut from the same template, however. That defeats the entire purpose of the brand’s very creation – “making something Greek, but a little more inspired,” as Alexakis explains.
“Look at every other restaurant that features ethnic cuisine in the U.S. Italian used to have a lot of family-style pasta, carbonara, or some really traditional dish. But there’s also Tuscan, or northern Italian cuisine or something more regional,” he said. “Greek has that enormity, and nobody has explored that. I want to expose people to the fact that Greek food is diverse because of its location and history.”
He said, for instance, that a lot of people think Greek food is “just gyros,” but most people eat kabab sandwiches, Greek salads and tapas.
“The whole other aspect I’m bringing from Greece are these quick little bites on the go. Think of it as a Greek version of the empanada. There is a huge variety of these little stuffed pockets filled with cheeses or sweet or savory. I’m really excited about that,” he said.
Alexakis said the company will diversify its menu as it grows based on location and demographic. Its River North location in Chicago, for instance, features more sandwiches and carryout-friendly dishes because most of the clientele is between 25 and 35 and on-the-go. Demographics surrounding the next location are mostly families with young children.
“We’ll do a lot of carryout there as well and have a lot of healthy choices for parents to feed their kids,” Alexakis said. “That has been a plus for us – we haven’t tried to fit a square peg into a round hole.”
About those two upcoming locations, Alexakis describes one as a variation of Avli that is focused on tapas. The second will be his first quick-service variation of Avli. They’ll be next door to each other in Chicago’s Fulton Market district.
“Greek tapas-style was my first restaurant in 1995, but I was 30 years too early. There is now so much socialization when people go out and the idea is this restaurant will be more conducive to that socialization aspect,” Alexakis said. “For the other place, quick-service has become popular. I can’t be the same price as McDonald’s, but for a few bucks more, you can get chef-produced food, enormous quality, and something healthy enough that you can eat often.”
The new concepts won’t be called Avli, but Alexakis said people will know they’re Avli-owned. He’s leaning on Avli Mezze (Greek for “tapas”) for the first one, but it’s early days. What his focus is on now is making sure his company meets the growing demand for Greek-inspired, healthy, chef-produced cuisine. This demand is why Alexakis has his sights well beyond the next two restaurants and on something bigger, including a potential national footprint.
“I don’t think we’re being bullish. We’re realizing, instead, that we’re best suited for this kind of world right now. We’re not a very expensive restaurant, we have really friendly service – think of it as the Greek version of ‘Cheers’ – and we offer high quality, scratch-made food that is hard to make at home,” Alexakis said.
For its expansion, Avli is targeting smaller cities, like Milwaukee, Nashville, Charlotte, Atlanta, and Austin – what Alexakis calls “hot restaurant markets” with demographics that are likely to respond well to this cuisine. He adds that this anticipated expansion is about more than just meeting demand, however, but also the efficiencies of scale. Avli imports products like wine, olive oil, and Feta cheese directly from Greece, for instance. That focus on authenticity isn’t going to change – “it’s our reputation,” Alexakis said – but it’s much cheaper to maintain with a larger footprint.
It’s worth noting that Avli’s growing scale won’t just come from adding restaurant concepts, but also a growing retail presence (Greek meals and wines are sold at local grocers throughout Chicago), as well as a new partnership with American Airlines in which Avli provides meals on select flights to Europe. The company also acquired a banquet business last year.
For Alexakis, this is just the beginning.
“We’re not just adding more units, we’re adding concepts that are Greek-based and figuring out what venues might best match. Does that mean more supermarkets? Stadiums? College towns or high-density residential areas?” he said. “We’ve reached the point now where we have the team to start doing this seriously.”
Contact Alicia Kelso at [email protected]