George’s Greek Cafe locations on Pine Avenue and in Lakewood will no longer be owned by the Loizides family.

However Nicky Loizides, daughter of the restaurant’s founder, George, will take majority ownership of the Belmont Shore location. She will share ownership with her brother Euripides, who goes by “Rip,” after purchasing her brother Jimmy’s stake in the restaurant.

Details on the two sales, which are still in progress, have not been revealed.

Escrow and the sale for the Pine location won’t be final for about four to six weeks, Loizides said.

Nicky Loizides said the Belmont Shore restaurant will still feature the same name and her mom’s recipes.

“All of that is gonna stay,” she said. “That’s what’s important to me.”

The Belmont Shore location has been undergoing a remodel and will have a re-grand opening event in a month or two after the work is complete. Loizides said there may be new things added, like some specials, but it will be an addition to the menu, not a replacement.

Loizides said her brother Jimmy and his family moved north to Solvang and it became too difficult to manage operations for all three restaurants. Loizides added that the Pine location continued to struggle after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It made sense to sell for my brother,” she said. “I just wanted to keep a part of my parents alive and because we live in the community and I’ve run this store for awhile, it made sense for us.”

The family has owned and managed the iconic restaurant for over two decades.

George Loizides originally opened George’s Greek Deli on Pine next to F&M Bank in the late 1990s before expanding to a full-service restaurant on 135 Pine Ave. He later expanded to Belmont Shore and Lakewood.

The wildly popular restaurant had been a Downtown staple for years, with the late family patriarch often out front greeting each guest.

The family immigrated to Long Beach in 1980, where George Loizides took a job working at a liquor store, his wife Rodou, whose recipes are used in the restaurant to this day, took a job at Wilson High School.

Loizides and his wife died in 2019, leaving behind their three children.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated with information from Nicky Loizides. 

George Loizides, patriarch of the George’s Greek Cafe restaurant family, dies at 83