A career change leads to Theo Yianni’s success in Weirton.
Shawn Mihellis may tell you it was never his plan to own a popular Greek restaurant in Weirton, but the winding road that led him there seems to suggest otherwise.
One: His parents came to America by boat, making Mihellis the first in his family to be born in this country. Two: They eventually migrated to Weirton, a town in the Northern Panhandle with a large Greek population. Three: Back in his younger days, he ran an after-hours bar in his basement where he’d make and serve his own Greek gyros.
Certainly sounds like he was destined for the restaurant business, but he eventually decided to go to college to get a teaching degree. “Yeah, I tried that for a few years.” He decided he needed to find something else. He laughs about it now, but that “something else” has paid off. He went on to open Theo Yianni’s, a little Greek restaurant in the middle of town, 13 years ago—and that small spot quickly became a hit among the locals. “The Greeks know their food, so I knew if I could get them to come, then I must be doing something right.”
Come they did, along with droves of others, for the following five years. With business booming, Mihellis then turned his attention to expansion, spotting a nice plot of land along the highway nearby where he eventually built a new 200-seat location to offer a larger menu to even more guests. Just like the size of the restaurant, public interest grew as well.
Other than maybe Dee Jay’s—a popular BBQ and rib joint in Weirton—no one else had really built a new standalone restaurant in town at that time, he says, so there was a lot of interest in their grand opening. And it hasn’t faded since. “We’re going on 13 years now. We made it through COVID-19, and we’re still going strong. The community response has been great.”
What that community loves is the large menu of Greek–American salads, sandwiches, pizzas, and specialties, like lamb chops and pastitsio, along with nice outdoor seating and a drive-through for grabbing food on the go. Although Mihellis says he’d put his burgers up against anyone around, gyros are easily their top seller, followed by chicken wings with his signature Bangy-Bangy sauce.
And back to that idea that Mihellis’ restaurant career may have been written in the cards before he even realized it? That sauce is the result of a “drunken recipe” he first made for friends back in college at West Liberty, long before Theo Yianni’s ever existed. “Bangy-Bangy is your sweet and your tangy, your yin and your yang. It’s made for anything and everything,” he says. “If you’re having a good day, there’s Bangy-Bangy. But if you’re having a bad day, there’s still Bangy-Bangy. Every place I ever waited at always wanted me to make that sauce, but I never thought I’d do anything with it.”
That could change soon, with plans to now get his sauce branded and bottled for national distribution. Other ideas in the works include expanding the restaurant with additional “express” locations—and perhaps even growing his own family’s restaurant legacy.
“This is definitely a family place, and I have two sons, 8 and 5, who say they plan to take it over some day. I joke that I really don’t want them to, because this business is hard, but we’re thankful for what we’ve been able to build here.”
322 American Way, theoyiannis.com, @theoyiannis on FB
READ MORE ARTICLES FROM WV LIVING’S WINTER 2024 ISSUE
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