San Francisco Mayor London Breed made April 8, 2024 a day of celebration for the Greek restaurant Souvla, marking its tenth anniversary and citing its fast-fine menu and its contribution to the local community. She took to social media to do it, and Hoodline's report the following morning is the contemporaneous news account of the declaration.
CHAPTER 01
A leftover sandwich in the Outer Richmond
Charles Bililies learned to cook Greek food by watching his grandfather work. "My Grandpa in Boston would come over at 6am and start the roasting," he told Hoodline a month before opening. "It seemed ridiculous at the time but now I get it."
He had been throwing his own all-day roasts in an Outer Richmond backyard, four or five a year. One morning he cleaned up after one and found leftover lamb, tomatoes and thick pita. He made a sandwich out of them, and the sandwich turned into a business plan.
Finding a room took two years, and Hayes Valley was always his top choice. One came free in October 2013, when the sushi restaurant Sebo closed on Hayes Street. Bililies called landing it luck: "right time, right place."
Souvla opened there the following April, Tuesday through Sunday, eleven in the morning until ten at night.
