Zito! Pizzeria & Grill closed its doors in Winston-Salem at 3030 Healy Drive earlier this month. However, the family business is still planning to operate in the Triad.
Victoria Manginas — daughter of the original owners of Zito! — will be opening Zito! Greek Kitchen at 1015 Rockford Street, Suite 100 in Mount Airy.
“Although leaving this location is very painful for me and my family, I am excited to take what I learned from my parents and continue it in my own business in Mount Airy,” Manginas wrote in a post on the Zito! Pizzeria & Grill Facebook page. “For many years, I felt it was my duty to honor my father’s memory and continue to oversee Zito’s restaurant. But at this moment in time, and when this amazing opportunity presented itself, I was ready to move on, and I think my father would be proud.”
Manginas’s parents, Helen and Evangelos, opened the original pizzeria in 2014. In 2018, Evangelos passed away, and Manginas and her mother managed to reopen the restaurant in 2019.
Manginas told What Now Charlotte that the move was fueled by her desire to move the restaurant location closer to home. When she found a great space for a restaurant in Mount Airy, she decided to take the leap.
“I had been looking for something to do on my own, and it coincided with my mom wanting to retire and get out of the restaurant business,” Manginas said. “So I just thought the best thing for me was to start my own business venture in that area.”
Manginas said the brand will be shifting away from the neighborhood pizzeria menu and atmosphere and will instead become a Greek restaurant. Menu items will include authentic Greek cuisine, Mediterranean dishes such as moussaka, vegan dishes, and Greek pastries. However, like the pizzeria, they will continue to sell Greek flatbreads, as well as their popular poutines and sandwiches for lunch, though they will now have a Greek twist.
The interior design will also model a Mediterranean style.
Manginas has pulled inspiration from her family’s roots. Her father was from Greece and her mother is from Canada, but also has Greek roots. She feels that the new concept will fill a hole she currently sees in the cuisines available in the area.
“I’m excited for Surry County to get a taste of Greek food,” Manginas said. “Just bringing [my family’s] roots there so people can actually taste authentic Greek cooking [is exciting]. I think it’ll be a hit in the town because there’s nothing else like it, so we’re just excited to bring our Greek flair to it.”
Manginas aims to open in December, though it will depend on inspections and renovations.
“I’m excited to take the lessons I learned from my parents and put them into my own restaurant, and to keep the family atmosphere,” Manginas said.
Emily McGinn is a passionate writer from the Los Angeles area. She has experience reporting on local news and the restaurant industry, and in multimedia writing for podcasts and videos. In her free time, she enjoys exploring restaurants and finding new coffee shops to try.
