I got one double pork pita, extra white, no hot,” Nick Karagiorgos shouts above the sizzle of the onions and the hum of the engine. With his younger brother, Franky, running the grill, Nick keeps the long line moving, remembering his regulars’ orders and chatting with the patrons as they wait for their food. He got his start at a tender age working his uncle’s souvlaki cart. “I was getting sodas for my Uncle George at age nine or ten.” It wasn’t long before his uncle built him a kid-sized metal cart, from which he began selling frozen fruit pops at $1.50 each. “Everyone gave me $2 and told me to keep the change. This was in the mid-1980s, so I was making bank.”
These days as co-owner of Uncle Gussy’s Truck, Nick works the same spot in the shadow of St. Bart’s on East 51st and Park that his Uncle Gus cultivated years earlier. “My uncle was one of the first vendors to sell on Park Avenue. There was no one here when he started,” says Nick.
When Uncle Gus retired in 2008, Nick and Franky were already running a breakfast cart nearby. They bought the lunch business, but taking over their uncle’s cart wasn’t an easy transition. A rival halal vendor several blocks away was furious when they started offering chicken over rice and threatened to set up a cart right next to them. “I said to them, My man, this is America. You can do whatever you want. But I tell you what, I guarantee you people will come to me and not you, because you don’t care.”
“I come from a line of vendors. My cousin’s a vendor; my uncle’s a vendor. My other cousin and my other uncle are vendors. And my mom gives it all the love.”
It’s not hard to find a gyro in Midtown. What sets the 2012 Vendy Award finalist apart is their rotating array of authentic Greek specialties prepared by their mom, Ekaterini Karagiorgos. Lines queue early for tender grilled lamb chops, steaming cups of avgolemono, lemony chicken soup with orzo, and pastichio, a “Greek lasagna” made with beef, macaroni, and cheese topped with béchamel sauce.
Besides preparing everything from the tzatziki, a thick, garlicky yogurt sauce to the lemon-intensive souvlaki marinade from scratch, Mrs. Karagiogos oversees the purchase of all meat that hits the grill. “When she lived in Greece, she lived in the countryside,” says Nick. “She knows when there’s a piece of old meat and when it’s a piece of new meat.” If the order doesn’t look up to “Mom’s” standards, she’s not shy about saying, “No, no, give me the good stuff.” The tireless commitment to quality—from shopping to prep work to cooking—is time consuming. Her friends tell her, “you’re going to die faster,” but Mrs. Karagiogos is nonplussed: “That’s OK. I don’t care. I like it nice and perfect. You eat; I’m honored you eat.”
As the business grows, Nick finds himself in a quandary. “Sometimes I don’t know how people like me and my mom do it. It’s a lot of work.” Turf wars continue to be an ongoing struggle. As new vendors hit the streets in shiny trucks with PR backing and big dreams, there’s a lack of respect for the order of things. Nick’s biggest fear is having someone “pull up on his spot” and sour the delicate relationship with the buildings in the area and the NYPD Alpha Unit, the squad that monitors vendors in Midtown that his family has cultivated since the 70s. “One comes, then the next one comes, then the next comes, then the cops come, and everybody goes. I try to tell everyone, have a little common courtesy. There’s a corner for everyone.”
In 2012, Nick went back to his ice pop roots opening Päg
, a gourmet ice cream cart featuring tangy frozen yogurt along with a line of sorbets and ice creams developed with the help of a master gelato maker. Like the truck, Päg is full-throttle Greek. The frozen yogurt is made from real Greek yogurt, and their flavors—like a rich coffee frappe—take their inspiration from Greece. Dreams of further expansion are tempered by concerns regarding quality. Nick’s hope is to someday open a restaurant where he can set his mother up in a big kitchen so she can really shine. “When I wake up, I love to go to work. So does my mom. I think I got it from her.”
Adapted from Ekaterini Karagiorgos’ recipe
Mom’s pork chops and lemon potatoes special always sells-out on the truck. Rocking the Twitter hashtag #grillinlikeavillian when the chops are on, regulars know to hurry over to the truck to get their fix. If you don’t have access to a monster grill like the one on board the Uncle Gussy’s truck, you can make it an indoor meal with ease using a cast-iron skillet and a broiler.
6 center-cut pork chops
¼ cup red cooking wine
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon Greek oregano
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
Rinse the pork chops and pat dry then place them in 13 x 9–inch baking dish or pan.
In a large measuring cup add the cooking wine, olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Whisk together until thoroughly combined.
Pour marinade over pork chops and rub it in. Marinate for 30 minutes.
Move rack in broiler to highest position.
Warm a large cast-iron skillet over high heat for about 5 minutes. Pan should be very hot but not smoking. Working in batches, add pork chops to pan in a single layer so they fit without overlapping. Sear pork chops about 1½ minutes per side, then transfer the cast iron pan to the broiler. Broil on high for 5 minutes without turning, until pork chops reach an internal temperature of 135 to 140°F. Remove from broiler and tent with aluminum foil for 5 minutes to let meat rest, then serve with Tzatizki (page 73) and Lemon Potatoes (page 74).
TIP: To avoid dry pork chops it’s best to let the meat rest for a few minutes before serving so it doesn’t release all of its juices upon cutting. To keep the meat from getting cold take a large sheet of aluminum foil, fold it in half like a tent and use it to loosely cover the meat while it rests.
Adapted from Ekaterini Karagiorgos’s recipe
There are few things in life that aren’t made better by a healthy slathering of Mrs. Karagiorgos’s killer tzatziki. Her secret? Use both Greek whole milk yogurt and sour cream for a super smooth and creamy sauce.
1 medium cucumber, peeled
8 ounces Greek whole-milk yogurt
8 ounces sour cream
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3 teaspoons white vinegar
½ teaspoon salt
teaspoon dried dill
dash of white pepper
Slice the cucumber lengthwise, use a spoon or melon baller to scoop out the seeds, then coarsely chop and add to the bowl of a food processor or blender with remaining ingredients. Pulse several times to break up the cucumber pieces, then blend on high until smooth. Serve with Greek-Style Pork Chops (page 71) and refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
Adapted from Ekaterini Karagiorgos’s recipe
Mrs. Karagiorgos’s kitchen runs on olive oil, lemon juice, and Greek oregano. These simple ingredients find their way into her meat marinades and her famous roasted potatoes. Covering the pan with aluminum foil allows the lemon flavor to steam into the potatoes as they cook. One bite will have you forsaking all other tubers.
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
½ tablespoon dried Greek oregano
3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
7 medium-sized white or yellow potatoes, washed, dried, and cut into wedges
¾ cup, plus 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
Move oven rack to center position and preheat the oven to 450°F. In a ramekin mix together the salt, oregano, and pepper. Set aside.
Add the potatoes to a 13 x 9–inch baking dish. Drizzle two tablespoons of olive oil over the potatoes and rub in. Add the spice mix to the potatoes and toss to coat.
Whisk together the remaining olive oil and lemon juice with ½ cup water, and pour the mixture in between the gaps created by the potatoes.
TIP: Be careful not to pour the mixture directly onto the potatoes, to avoid washing off the spices.
Cover the pan with aluminum foil and cook for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, stir potatoes and continue cooking, stirring occasionally for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the potatoes are crispy and golden outside and fork-tender on the inside.
