Business - Business News

POSTED: Thursday, Jun. 25, 2009

Longtime Bellingham Greek restaurant to close

BELLINGHAM - One of the city's longtime Greek restaurants soon will be shutting down.

Eleni and Jim Zourkos are ready to retire and do some traveling, so they will be closing Eleni's Family Restaurant after 25 years. The restaurant at 3720 Meridian St. will officially close Wednesday, July 15, although the lounge will close Tuesday, June 30, when the state liquor license expires.

"There will probably be a lot of tears on that last day," said Jim Zourkos, 74. "We made a lot of friends here (at Eleni's), and have customers who have been with us from the beginning. One of them said they want to take the table (that they sit at regularly) after we're done with it."

The Zourkos family got its start in the restaurant business by joining others in launching the annual Greek festival at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church. Eleni Zourkos regularly made items such as baklava for the event, and it got her thinking about starting a restaurant. In 1984, Eleni and Jim opened Eleni's in a small space at the Lakeway Shopping Center.

"Our boys were growing up and we wanted to have a business where the whole family could be involved," said Jim Zourkos, who previously worked at Intalco and Mt. Baker Plywood after moving to Whatcom County in 1959.

Zourkos said the restaurant was a popular hangout in the 1980s and the 1990s as they regularly featured belly-dancer programs and Eleni's began winning awards for its food. They decided to move into a bigger standalone building in 1997, choosing the current space near Interstate 5. In moving to the north part of town, they found themselves with an older clientele and more out-of-town visitors from the nearby hotels, so they decided to stop the belly-dancing programs and focus on the food and service.

The key to keeping the restaurant going for 25 years was having the help of family, Zourkos said, including sons David and Nick and daughter-in-laws Nia and Yianna Zourkos. There are also three grandchildren who have worked at the restaurant.

Once the restaurant closes, Jim and Eleni plan to visit relatives in Greece.

"We have a lot of nephews and nieces that we haven't seen for a long time," Jim Zourkos said. "We felt now is the right time, although we'll miss all of the people we've met at the restaurant."