First night nerves for her new business quickly disappeared for Evangelia Tagari when the orders started flooding in.
Her authentic Greek takeaway, the first in Inverness, took off immediately with demand far outstripping her expectations.
YiaYias Little Kitchen, based at the Raigmore Motel, opened in August and on its first night Evangelia cooked more than 100 orders by herself.
Greek grandmothers inspired business name
“It was crazy. I honestly never thought it would be that busy, but the phone did not stop ringing.
“I wasn’t sure who would come, maybe some friends and family, and I’d get maybe 20 orders over the weekend.”
The journey to a new takeaway in Inverness took Evangelia, known as Eva, from her home city of Thessaloniki, Greece’s gastronomic capital, via Germany.
Her parents ran a Greek restaurant in Nuremberg for more than 25 years and helping them at weekends gave her the cooking bug.
Summer holidays spent with both her grandmothers (Yiayias) also helped develop her love for food and Greek traditions, and eventually inspired the name of the business.
In 2020, during Covid, she started a food blog, sharing her favourite Greek recipes, but her dream of one day opening her own business was still a long way away.
‘We wanted something new’
Having studied economics and law at university, she was more used to working on million-Euro sales deals with major car manufacturers.
In 2016 she met her husband-to-be James Mackenzie, the Inverness-born singer songwriter, who was touring Germany with Runrig.
The pair maintained a long-distance relationship before getting married and then moved to Scotland in 2023.
“We decided after we got married we wanted something new.
“I worked for six years in the automotive industry and it was very stressful.
“I always wanted to open my own restaurant. I didn’t want to take the risk before, but with a new start I thought ‘why not, what do you have to lose?’
“I looked for over a year for a location, but found it hard due to the costs and being a new business.
“I got sick of waiting around so thought about a dark kitchen (premises that sell meals exclusively through delivery), and when I got offered the chance at the Raigmore Motel it was ideal.”
She added: “My family thought I was crazy as they know how hard it can be in the business.
“But they accepted it and said it’s OK as long as I’m happy.
Takeaway boosted by Greek holidays
“Having your own business is still stressful but it’s a different kind of stress.
“Cooking makes me happy and I flourish with stress in the kitchen.”
Eva puts some of the early success of the takeaway down to people who have visited Greece and want an authentic taste of the country.
“A lot of customers are people who love Greece as a holiday destination.
“But there are also those who have never been but are curious about Greek cuisine.
“It’s very healthy, Mediterranean food, with lots of vegetables and olive oil. I do a lot of vegan dishes too which are going down well.”
Eva’s food is a mix of locally-sourced ingredients and those imported from her homeland, including olive oil, feta cheese and spices.
She now has three staff helping to regularly send out up to 120 orders in a weekend with 89% of orders coming from return customers.
There are plans to start a deli box of Greek goods to order via the website next year.
And there will be a Christmas hamper giveaway in December, with the winner picked randomly from customer emails.
‘My dream is having my own restaurant or cafe’
YiaYias Little Kitchen currently opens each Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 4pm.
Eva also works part-time from home dealing with English and German-speaking customers of prestige perfume brand Byredo.
But the longer-term dream is still to work full-time cooking her own food.
“The plan is to have my own premises in the next year or two. My dream is to have a restaurant or café.
“There are so many places in Inverness that do traditional Scottish food, so I’d like to do something different and in line with my Greek heritage.”
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