OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Unless you work Downtown, you may not know there's a food court inside the Brandeis Building. That's where Athenian Gyros is. They're open and hoping to get more business during this time.
"Our name is Athenian Gyros, so obviously we sell gyros. We sell a lot of those," said owner Trudy Ehrsam. "We have chicken gyros, phillies, we have pork tenders, fish sandwiches, burgers. We sell a lot of burgers, they like our burgers."
Athenian Gyros has been in business for nearly 30 years. It's located inside the Brandeis Building food court, which for people who work downtown, is a food hub, with several restaurant options and common seating.
It's easy to get through with a tunnel connecting to First National Bank.
However, now with most of the workforce working from home, that means less foot traffic.
"It affects us a lot," Ehrsam said. "I'd say our business is down 85 - 90% because there is nobody here to feed."
Two years ago, Ehrsam and her husband bought the restaurant. It's those two, and their employee, Katie, running the place.
"It's just the three of us, and that's it, every day, all day, all year long," Ehrsam said. "So I haven't done anything; I'm doing my best to keep Katie employed. Working as a husband and wife is sometimes challenging, so Katie is our little buffer, plus she's been here for 25 years, and she knows everybody and everybody knows her."
With business down, Ehrsam has made some adjustments.
"I just decided, 'You know what, I'm going to have to pull back on the specials.' We normally do specials, and then our normal menu, so I decided I would do a soup. Everybody loves our soup, we make a fresh one every day, and then do a vegetable, rice, and we have this thing called red potatoes. So that's basically what I am doing in addition, but it's a smaller amount than what I normally do."
She's cutting back now, so once this is over, business can continue.
"It's really scary, but I know that once this goes back to normal, we'll be fine, but we have decided to offer some curbside service," Ehrsam said. "Haven't had a lot of people take us up on that yet, but we do have some people who just come in. We have a customer from Bennington that just comes in every week, just to buy some food and buy what she normally would have purchased."
So come on down and order some food to go. Curbside is offered via Douglas Street.
"Basically what I told them is, if you're doing curbside, just call and let us know when you're here, park outside and turn your flashers on so we know what car to look for and then we will run out there and give you your order."
ADDRESS:
210 S. 16th St. Omaha, NE 68102
CONTACT:
402-346-6749
ADJUSTED SERVICES:
Curbside, to-go
HOURS:
Monday - Thursday, 7:30AM-1:30 PM, Friday 7:30AM-1PM
