Nick Kolaitis, Ben Freeman and Frank Gavralas are behind Hawthorn’s hottest souvlaki spot-so hot you’d be lucky to find a spot. The joint on 684 Glenferrie Road is the first street-side Ya Souv. The first attempt to offer Melburnians a juicy taste of Greek street food was at Westfield Knox 18 months ago, followed by a second eatery at Westfield Donaster.
“Ya Souv is all about tasty, ready to eat food and drink sold on the street,” Nick Kolaitis tells Neos Kosmos.
“We have taken this concept into shopping centres and now to our new street site in Hawthorn.”

Australian-born Nick whose parents are from Cephalonia has a long history in hospitality even though growing up he went to uni aspiring to follow a different path from his parents, and “stay away from the food game”.
“I don’t know if it was luck or will but in 1999 I re-entered the café industry and have been working in hospitality since,” he explains.

“For the last 20 years I’ve running cafes but it wasn’t until I had one of these souvs again several years ago in Greece that made me think that there is a gap in the market for quick, flavoursome Greek street food.”

Nick’s trip to Greece got him acquainted with the proper souvlaki with the Greek thick pita, the chips inside, marinated meat, paprika and the homemade different types of sauce.

“It was the easiest and tastiest food around,” he enthuses.

“Souvlakia in Greece are smaller, yet unbelievably tasty and much juicer. We decided to go one step further and create our own trend; traditional, yet with a touch of Melbourne.”

At Ya Souv, the lamb and pork is not cooked in the traditional gyros way. Only the chicken goes on the rotisserie.

The chef slow cooks the lamb and pork for 12 hours over night.

“The meat is prepared with my mum’s special marinate and slow-cooking makes it melt in your mouth,” Nick describes. “We don’t do gyro, we do pulled pork and pulled lamb which are roasted all night but in their own juices so, you could say it’s a much healthier option as well.”

The traditional Greek souvlaki, Ya Greek, is the top seller, competing with the rizogalo (Greek rice pudding) and spanakopita (spinach pastry). Ya Souv also offers Greek coffees like elliniko, frappe, freddo cappuccino and freddo espresso.

“We wanted a space that was not your traditional Greek restaurant look with the white table cloths and blue everything else,” Nick stresses.
“Our brief to our design team was something Greek with a twist; something that was modern and would attract from 15-year-old school kids to the 75-year-old yiayia, and we nailed that.”

Neos Kosmos also suggests you try the Ya Thalassa, a fried calamari souv with tzatziki sauce, caramelised onion, lettuce and tomato. There is also a wide variety of Greek beer and wine list available.