George Georgiades, 58, and his wife, Anoush, own a series of fast-casual restaurants in North Jersey, including two SQ Pizza places, serving trendy Roman pizza, and three EONS: Greek Food for Life. Georgiades, a Mahwah resident, previously cooked at La Cote Basque and Hotel Pierre in NYC, as well as in Switzerland and France. He also co-owned Varka in Ramsey.
You previously worked in high-end restaurants in Manhattan?
George Georgiades: Yes, I was always in high-end dining from the beginning. Since I’m of Greek descent, it was expected that I would go into the diner business. I had a friend who owned a place, and he asked me to work for him, and I turned it down because I thought I was too above that kind of food. Ha!
After you moved to New Jersey, you opened a restaurant here, too?
I helped open Varka, an upscale Greek seafood restaurant in Ramsey, and became executive chef and partner. At first, I didn’t want to take the job, but it was the food that I enjoyed eating the most. I love the simplicity of Greek food and using really good, pristine ingredients. I never looked back from there. I always stayed with that style of food.
Then you and your wife came up with the concept for EONS: Greek Food for Life, which is fast-casual Greek cooking?
Yes, we wanted to cook sustainable, antibiotic-free, quality food and bring it to the masses. But we also wanted to make it affordable. We can charge less because we don’t have to pay for all the staffing and the tableware. People order at the counter—but we never sacrifice quality for fast service.
You had a life change that made you want to eat and serve healthier food?
In my forties, I had gained a lot of weight and had a heart attack. Even though we were chefs, we didn’t eat good food after working at these fine-dining places. We’d go to McDonald’s and eat French fries and tacos and processed food. That’s what led me to SQ Pizza. I didn’t realize that flour could have all these chemicals in it, like bromates. When my wife and I were in Rome, we were inspired by a pizzeria there named Bonci Pizzarium. That pizza was the best thing I’d eaten in 20 years. And so one thing led to another, and we decided to open SQ Pizza, serving Roman-style pizza.
Tell me about the pizza, which is served square or rectangular, but isn’t like Sicilian pizza.
Roman pan pizza is definitely becoming a trend. It hits that sweet spot between quality and convenience. People love the light, crispy crust and creative toppings. The dough has a longer fermentation period, at least 72 hours, which results in its unique taste. I make sure that the flour is clean and pure. You read the label and all it says is flour. We import it from Italy, and it has very little gluten in it.
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