Grillway Souvlaki House
Grillway Souvlaki House is a classic Greek comfort food restaurant known for sub sandwiches and of course their souvlaki.
The original restaurant at 523 Annette St. actually opened in 1991, with another location opening in 2017 at 2422 Bloor St. West, but the locations closed in 2018 and 2020 respectively.
The newest location has opened, of all places, at 522 Annette St. right across the street from the original.
It was opened by Chris and Tasia Karathanasis, who had immigrated to Canada from Greece to provide a better life for their family.
All they knew was Mediterranean cooking, and when they moved here they decided they'd come up with something that was representative of both Greek and Canadian cultures.
The Bloor West location was opened by their son Gus, but unfortunately, because of a car accident, he had to sell the business to look after other needs.
Gus tells blogTO that the closure of the original Annette location "was beyond our control. We did not have a choice, we were pushed out by an egregious landlord."
He says that they decided to reopen in the new location on Annette because of all the love and support from people in the area.
"The neighbourhood begged for Grillway to come back," Gus tells blogTO.
Gus now runs the new location along with his parents, Chris and Tasia.
"We blended the Canadian and Greek cultures together to offer great food to many groups and ethnicities," says Gus.
"Subs and burgers are a true Canadian staple, as well as poutine."
The family doesn't only make all the food they serve at the restaurant, they also personally go to the food terminal, butchers and other suppliers to hand-pick their ingredients.
"There are a lot of man-hours that go into the business behind the scenes that no one sees," says Gus.
All those hours along with passion, love, and signature marinades and spice blends are what Gus says makes the food at Grillway so tasty, along with one special thing at the restaurant that goes on pretty much everything served.
"We are constantly told that our homemade tzatziki is better than tzatziki in Greece," says Gus.
"Grillway used to sell pizza, pasta, breakfast, and fish. We literally had everything under the sun. But as times changed, the cost to carry that many items is not feasible in today's market. Instead, we downsized and asked the neighbourhood what their favourites dishes were and stuck to the neighbourhood favourites."
Fareen Karim
