Christopher and Harry Pappas are the founders and owners of Pappas Restaurants, managing over 100 restaurants in 7 states of the USA.
Chris serves as the company’s CEO and his brother as the President.
Pappas Restaurants has ranked 70th in the list of the 100 Top Companies for 2010. Moreover, they own the majority package of Luby’s chain of restaurants, where Chris is the President and Harry is the CEO.
Their father Jim relocated to the United States together with their grandfather in 1897 and started a successful restaurant. However, they both advised the two young men to stay away from restaurants due to the long working hours and several other reasons. At the beginning of their career, both brothers followed their advice, but they later decided to devote their lives to the family business.
Harry studied Economics at the University of Texas A&M and then joined the army, serving the United States in Thailand and Vietnam. Chris studied Engineering at the University of Texas and later worked for IBM.
Shortly after returning home, Harry started managing his father’s restaurant Dot Coffee Shop and Chris followed him.
Chris and Harry opened their first restaurant in 1976 and named it Strawberry Patch. Since then, they have opened over 100 restaurants promoting high food quality. With 9 different brands, they can meet their customers’ different expectations.
Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen, Pappasito’s Cantina, Pappas Bros. Steakhouse, Pappas Seafood House, Pappas Bar-B-Q, Pappas Burger and Yia Yia Mary’s Greek Kitchen are their standard restaurants, each with a different cuisine expertise, offering also catering and delivery services.
Yia Yia Mary’s Greek Kitchen opened in 2005 and was named after the family’s grandmother Maria, serving her original Greek recipes.
