CityView Magazine

58 | Food & Wine • 2009 can do so many things with food!" Acknowledging that the restaurant life is non-stop and challenging, he says it's the rush that brings him back. And it's brought him full circle, back into the restaurant business with Pete Poulos, his father. Many of Fayetteville's earliest Greek immigrants encouraged their sons and daughters to work in the family restaurant business, creating special bonds with their children through the day-to-day close contact of working together in a home away from home. Though many of the children choose higher education and other career paths, there are many successful restaurants in Fayetteville that now enjoy second- generation proprietorship. Not that Greek families are immune from the inevitable conflict that can result from two generations working together in a demanding business. Bringing together two generations of Mediterranean temperament, with different approaches to doing business, can make for a volatile partnership. The father-son team of Pete and John Poulos have recently reunited to work together at the Pizza Palace. They are an interesting duo; Pete is an old-school, work-your-way-up kind of success, and John is a professionally-trained chef, a graduate of the prestigious culinary arts department of Johnson Wales University with a resume that includes some fine restaurants in Atlanta. It is the Pouloses who created Trio's, an upscale restaurant in Fayetteville that enjoyed a successful run back in the 1990s. And way, way before that, Pete ran The Grecian Gate, a restaurant at which he once cooked a meal for Elvis Presley. It's evident that many Greek families truly do love the restaurant business, and both Pete and John Poulos' love for the life shines through everything either of them says about it. "I'm a food man," Pete Poulos says. "I've probably served a million people." Even his daughter is in on the act. Lula Poulos has created a niche in the business and transplanted success to nearby Moore County – and beyond. She grew up in Fayetteville and enjoyed a career in the travel industry before opening Lula's Café on Broad Street in Southern Pines six years ago. A popular destination for lunch, Lula's offers up soup so good that it's hit the big time. Available through Neiman Marcus and their sister company, Horchow, as well as through Southern Seasons, Lula's Portabello Mushroom Soup and Potato Leek Soup are enjoyed by fervent fans all across the country. She graciously credits her brother, John, for the recipes and their success. Lula's Café recently began serving breakfast, too. It's not unusual for these professional restaurateurs to trade recipes, tips or even eat in each other's restaurants, whether one of their own is just down the street or the next county over. "We do party together, and celebrate together," Lula Poulos says with a smile, "but we can also seriously compete with one another." Suffice it to say that their unwavering success blends the best of their love of good food, high regard for people and astonishing work ethic. In some ways, being Greek seems like a life force unto itself! Many of these families hail from the same region of Greece: Evrytania, a mountainous region in the central part of the country. Linda Parrous Higgins says that as one family emigrated to Lula Poulos has created a niche in the business and transplanted success to nearby Moore County – and beyond. She grew up in Fayetteville and enjoyed a career in the travel industry before opening Lula's Café on Broad Street in Southern Pines six years ago. A popular destination for lunch, Lula's offers up soup so good that it's hit the big time. Available through Neiman Marcus and their sister company, Horchow, as well as through Southern Seasons, Lula's Portabello Mushroom Soup and Potato Leek Soup are enjoyed by fervent fans all across the country. Right | Chris's Steak House is another established restaurant owned and operated by Greeks.

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