Faces of Norwalk: Chris Gavrielidis, Restaurant Owner

The Gavrielidis family has been expanding its touch in Norwalk since the early 1970s.

That was when the property for the family's first restaurant was purchased at 232 East Ave., a property that was originally a Greek night club and restaurant but in the 90s became East Side Cafe, a sports bar with modern American food, Chris Gavrielidis, age 36, said.

Gavrielidis, one of the six owners of the four restaurants, said the family then purchased the properties where Harbor Lights and Overton's sit now in 2000. Overton's, a fast-food seafood stop at 80 Seaview Ave., stayed the exact same, while the space at 82 Seaview Ave. was rebuilt and opened as Harbor Lights, a high-end seafood restaurant, in 2001.

Then about six years ago, the family bought 88 Washington Street and opened Estia, an authentic Greek restaurant, about two years later.

Gavrielidis said the reason for the variety in their restaurants' offerings is that it just "makes sense."

"There's no reason to have two of the same restaurant within a mile of each other," Gavrielidis said. 
The Gavrielidis family, the portion that owns the restaurants, is made up of Chris Gavrielidis, his sister, his two brothers and their parents. While as the youngest sibling, he is a Norwalk native, his brothers were born and raised in Greece and his sister was born in the United States and raised in Greece. The family works together in all of its restaurant endeavors, he said.

"We're just a family, we kind of just own everything," Gavrielidis said. "We don't do paperwork where it's, 'You own 20 percent of this, you own 30 percent of that, and you have shares,' we own everything together."

Gavrielidis is married and has two young sons. He said whether or not they choose to become part of the family's restaurant business will be left up to them.
"I'd like them to do whatever makes them happy I guess. If they want to (go into the restaurant business), it'll be here for them. I'd like them to go to school and get a degree in something else to be honest," he said. "But this is always something that, if they want to pursue it even further, they can."

The food industry is a difficult one to be in, Gavrielidis said, so it's hard to know the future.

"It's a tough business. I don't know where this business is going to be 20 years from now. Food prices keep going up, you have that combined with the economy that's not so great (and) you have more competition with restaurants (in the general area)," Gavrielidis said. "A lot of people are going into business and it's a business that's not easy to be successful."

He said what sets his family apart, though, is that it owns its restaurants. 

"I think one of the reasons we've been successful is we actually own the properties, we don't pay rent," Gavrielidis said. "When the economy stumps, your mortgage is still the same and eventually you have to pay it off and you have equity, while other people, if they're renting, if their landlord sees they're doing well and 10 years later he raises the lease on them, it makes it just more difficult for them to operate."

He added that the amount of involvement the family has with its restaurants has made a difference as well. 

"We're actually hands-on owners, you know, we're not the kind of people to disappear," Gavrielidis said. "It's something that we live with. Before my kids, I used to call this my baby because I was here all the time, and I'm still here all the time, except Sundays."

More information about Harbor Lights can be found here and about Estia can be found here. To find out more about East Side Cafe, check out its website, and for more about Overton's, see its website.