Okay, I’m a snob. When my editor assigned me to write about the new Greek chain restaurant in Columbia that everyone was talking about, I was skeptical. A chain?
But days after my first visit, I turned in my snob card and drove to the eatery’s sister location in Cockeysville. Turns out I’m hooked on The Big Greek Cafe, one of Howard County’s two newest food obsessions.
It’s not like I’ve never had Greek food before. The Big Greek Cafe serves avgolemono soup, crispy French fries and other staples you can find at many takeout places in Baltimore. But it’s tasty, homemade fare that lives up to the slogan “just like yia yia used to make.” In addition to its signature beef and lamb gyro, which sells for $7 on Wednesdays, the chain is known for its generous portions of homey, well-priced entrees like moussaka with two sides for $16.95 — perfect for sharing for dinner. Even my baby loves it.
Perhaps that’s why foodies on the 20,000 members-strong Howard County Eats Facebook page have been posting about the restaurant nonstop since it arrived a few weeks ago at 8874 McGaw Road, near Wegmans.
“It definitely was a bigger opening than I expected to be,” said Nick Kontos, director of operations for the chain. “But it’s great.”
“Big Greek Cafe on McGaw Rd is the real deal!” went one of the approximately 9 million or so comments my editor flagged. (Editor’s note: I’m always right.) “I lived in Greece for several years and my dinner tonight was the closest I’ve had to what I remember from Greek home kitchens and village tavernas.”
The chain was started in Silver Spring in 2009 by twin brothers Nikos and Simos Marmaras using their mother’s home recipes. After adding branches in Montgomery, Prince George’s and Baltimore counties, a location in Howard, with its diverse community and enthusiastic base of eaters, felt like the next logical step for expansion.
“It really reminded us of Montgomery County,” Kontos said of Columbia. “It kind of gives you a small town vibe even though it’s not a small town.”
Oh, and by the way: Kontos confirms that the correct pronunciation of “gyro” is “YEE-ro,” not “JYE-ro” as so many Americans tend to say it. But they won’t judge people who get it wrong.
If the gyro mania sounds slightly familiar, that’s because HoCo residents recently went bonkers for a different kind of sandwich. On Friday and Saturday nights, customers will wait up to two hours for a hefty sub from Cheesesteak & Co., which opened on the 6500 block of Washington Boulevard in Elkridge this summer.
Prior to opening the eatery, Phill Gharfeh and his business partner, Bivek Poudel, both ran pizza places in the area. They decided to start a new concept specializing in a dish common at pizzerias but somewhat rarer as a specialty item.
With its name and somewhat generic logo, Cheesesteak & Co. looks like it’s already an established chain, one you might have seen at the mall or airport. “That was our point with the brand, to look bigger than we are,” Gharfeh said. “But it’s just two guys.”
The branding, coupled with some high-quality cheesesteaks, has worked. So many people began posting about the eatery on the Howard County Eats Facebook page that cheesesteak fatigue became a running joke. (Want to get yelled at on the internet? Post a photo of a cheesesteak on the page.)
During the restaurant’s second week in business, foodie influencer Kimberly Kong came in and said it was maybe the best cheesesteak she’d ever had. “Cheesesteak & Co’s become a hotspot in the burbs, and the hype’s well deserved,” Kong, whose @nomtasticbaltimore account has over 100,000 followers, wrote in an email. “The food’s consistently solid, and you get great bang for your buck.”
Gharfeh said that while it was good to be the restaurant everyone was talking about, things turned ugly. With so much buzz, it had to be fake, right? Facebook commenters accused one another of being bought off by Big Cheesesteak. “That page kind of drove us nuts,” he said.
Gharfeh would like to add other locations eventually, but in the meantime, he and Bivek are so busy with the Elkridge shop they barely have time to take photos for the restaurant’s Instagram account.
The volume has helped the business manage its food costs at a time when the price of beef is soaring. That keeps down the price of the sandwich, which is $11.99 for a small and $16.99 for a large. The latter, by the way, is 12 ounces, enough food to feed a small army — or the hungriest Baltimore Banner reporter you know.
