Greek restaurant debuts in Gresham

A warm gyro is a wonderful thing. The heart of the gyro lies in its shaved slices of seasoned lamb and beef, sliced onions and a tzatziki cucumber sauce. All of this is then wrapped in a warm, soft pita. This Greek favorite, among others, is now available to dorm students at Gresham Food Court.\nThe manager of Gresham, Gina Brooks, said the still unnamed dining concept has been very popular since it opened March 22.\n"The first day, we sold 80 gyros in the first hour alone," said Brooks. "Tuesday, we sold over 500 gyros."\nShe said the idea to introduce the Greek dining concept came from Sandra Fowler, director of Residential Programs and Services dining services, and Ancil Drake, the executive chef for RPS. \nFowler said the new Greek restaurant replaced the "Pacific Rim" Chinese restaurant.\n"Basically, Pacific Rim wasn't getting used as much as the other concepts," she said.\nBrooks said Pacific Rim was not very popular with students and there have been few complaints about its removal. \nBoth Fowler and Brooks said they decided to go with a Greek restaurant because students were getting tired of the current set-up in Gresham. \n"(The Greek restaurant) was different than anything we had," Fowler said.\nBrooks said converting Pacific Rim to a Greek restaurant was easy and inexpensive. She also said though the restaurant ran out of pitas during the first night, the transition has been relatively smooth.\nSenior Ritesh Kalati said the new restaurant is a welcomed addition to the food court.\n"I've been eating gyros my whole life, and this one is pretty good," he said.\nSenior Zaheer Muscat said he also enjoyed the gyro restaurant.\n"I love it -- it's good, and it's new," he said. "I think they should change restaurants every year."\nFowler said a new Tex-Mex restaurant is slated to go into Wright Quad at the Wright Place today.\n-- Contact staff writer Michael Zennie at mzennie@indiana.edu.