For the past 31 years, the small town of Price has been home to a Greek restaurant that serves dishes straight out of the island of Crete. Greek Streak has been a mainstay for many people since its inception, and a second location in Logan is celebrating its first anniversary.
In May 1991, the Sun Advocate did a feature story on Greek Streak and owners, at the time, Katherine and George Gianoulis. In the piece, Katherine remarked on how popular the restaurant became after only five years of being in business. “People from Salt Lake stop in to eat, and after they try my food, they don’t like the Greek food in Salt Lake anymore,” Katherine said. After opening the restaurant in 1986, the Gianoulises owned and operated it for 14 years before handing the reins down to their long-time employee Loretta Trejo.
Trejo had been an employee at Greek Streak for 12 years prior and, when the Gianoulises were unable to run the restaurant anymore, she bought it from them and has been running it ever since. Since taking over, she has kept up the time-honored preparation of the food and sauces that her predecessors first served. “Katherine, when I first bought it, she said to me, ‘Make me three promises…don’t ever change my recipes. Keep making the gyro sauce the way I taught you…Don’t believe people when they come in and say they can sell you the same product that you have,’ And I still do it,” Trejo said.
Trejo has started her own tradition, as every one of her five children have worked for her at the restaurant. “My four oldest kids, they all worked here through college, high school, junior high school, whatever… My mom and dad fostered 23 kids; they all worked here for me,” Trejo said. As a result of her children having worked at the restaurant, Trejo hasn’t had to worry about how they’d end up as adults. “My kids have gone on to college…[and] are very successful. They all worked here, they all had that experience and that work experience,” she said.
Her oldest son, Mario, took his experience working for his mother and decided to open his own Greek Streak. Trejo recounted the exchange she had with him before he decided to pursue his goal, “I told him, ‘What makes you think you can do it?’ And he says, ‘Well I watched you do it for so many years…I know it is a lot of hours, and I know you were gone a lot. But I watched you work hard; I know I can work hard,’” she said.
On June 22 last year, Mario cut the ribbon on his restaurant in Logan. He and his family will celebrate his one-year anniversary this month.
One of the most impressive achievements for Trejo is her ability to keep up the restaurant’s popularity, despite the original owners having left the business. She attributes her continued success to her years as an employee for the Gianoulises, “I was just a familiar face to people. We didn’t do a big to-do like new business owners.”
An even more impressive feat for Trejo is that she is a cancer survivor and managed to continue running the restaurant during her battle, eventually beating it in 2010. In 2009, Trejo had adopted her youngest son as a newborn. While at the doctor’s office, going for a physical, she learned that she had cancer. Even while she was going through chemo, Trejo continued to run the restaurant to support her family. One year later, in 2010, she went off chemo and was found to be completely-cancer free.
Before they left Trejo control of the restaurant, the Gianoulises helped acclimate her to the business side of Greek Streak. “Gradually I came in, [and] they stayed for about a week…They helped me and stuff, and then I just gradually took over; nobody really knew that there was a change,” she said.
For as easy as it is to read about Greek Streak, and Trejo’s journey, one cannot truly appreciate the restaurant without trying the food firsthand. Trejo has a few favorite dishes that she recommends to people, “dolmades(stuffed grape leaves), and the spinach pitas are my favorite,” she said.
Greek Streak is at 84 S Carbon Ave. in Price.
You must try the dolmades
Loretta Trejo in the Greek Streak.