Giannis (left) and Yanni
Two Yannis, one tavern
Yannis Pihas has been greeting guests at his restaurants in Poway and Scripps Ranch since 2002. On a recent trip to Greece, he sat down at a table he has known since he was a child.
Yannis and his wife, Denise, who own Yanni’s Bar & Grill on Scripps Highlands Drive, traveled north to see family near Ioannina.
“Being with our cousins was the highlight,” Denise wrote in the couple’s travel journal.
They also stopped in Koutselio, the village just south of Ioannina where Yannis’ father is from. The Giannakopoulos family has run a tavern there, O Zagorisios, since 1965, and Yannis’ family has been eating there since he was a boy.
The owner’s name is Giannis, the same name as Yannis.
“Giannis has a personality very similar to our Yannis,” Denise wrote. “You can imagine the two of them together.”
Giannis and his son, Ilias, showed the couple the kitchen. Lamb and goat go into a wood-heated hearth on a tray, under a cover sealed around the edges with ash, and cook slowly underneath.
The full story and 14 photographs are in the couple’s travel journal at yannis-sardinia-wine-mission.vercel.app.
Yanni’s Bar & Grill
12015 Scripps Highlands Drive
(858) 527-0011