Yiayia’s Bakery will offer some of Greece’s sweetest authentic treats and pastries such as galaktoboureko, baklava and kataifi. Photo: Yiayia’s Bakery.
Father and son duo John and Theoklitos Anousas claim they will be opening Canberra’s first Greek bakery and patisserie when they throw open the doors to Yiayia’s Bakery on 28 February.
John and Theoklitos have teamed up with former Supabarn owner Eric Koundouris to bring the taste of Greece to Gungahlin.
It’s been a long time coming, with the new business growing from a kitchen in Moncrieff.
At just 25, Theoklitos will be managing the new venture. He said his family had been in the hospitality industry for many years before moving from Greece to Australia in 2014.
“In 1984, my father John opened up his first family business, a patisserie or zaharoplastio named Lihoudis in Athens, which we had for 28 years and sold before moving here,” he said.
When the Anousas family settled in Australia, they decided to start a commercial kitchen from home to continue their Athenian legacy in Canberra.
In October 2017, John’s Family Kitchen began baking traditional Greek biscuits, cakes, sweetbreads and savoury foods and selling them from home. They eventually established a name for themselves on Facebook, where the local Greek community were big fans.
Theoklitos Anousas looks forward to opening Yiayia’s Bakery and bringing a taste of Greece to Canberra. Photo: Yiayia’s Bakery.
“We then started selling our Greek sweets at local supermarkets such as IGA stores and independent European market stores across Canberra as we could see we were slowly becoming a success,” Theoklitos said.
“People were loving our sweets, so we decided to go in partnership with Mr Koundouris, and then came the idea of opening Canberra’s first zaharoplastio.”
Theoklitos said the inspiration behind opening Yiayia’s Bakery was to teach Canberrans Greek culture through its cuisine of traditional food and sweets.
“We wanted to bring Greece to Canberra,” he said.
The bakery/patisserie will offer sweets, such as bougatsa, galaktoboureko, kataifi, baklava, cakes, traditional biscuits, and eclairs, savoury treats and pastries including spanakopita, tiropita, mousaka, gemista and pastitsio, as well as traditional Greek coffee, freddo espresso, freddo cappuccino and authentic Greek frappe.
“It’s very exciting that the time is finally here and we look forward to opening,” Theoklitos said.
Yiayia’s Bakery will be open seven days a week in Gungahlin Market Place. If all goes well, they hope to open more stores in Canberra.
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