Chicago’s Pioneering Avli Group Adds a Partner
Posted by estiator at 10 April, at 09 : 31 AM Print
After nearly 20 years with Avli, Ian Vlahakis is now a co-owner.
By Michael Kaminer
Creative writing might not seem like the most natural course of study for a budding restaurateur. But for Ian Vlahakis, who last month became an owner of Chicago’s acclaimed Avli Hospitality Group, his English-major studies at DePauw University offered the perfect preparation for the “artistic medium” of restaurants.
“So much of hospitality is about reading subtext,” Vlahakis tells Estiator from Chicago. “Engaging with guests means you have to find things that aren’t explicitly expressed. And what you try to do in a dining room is create a stage or a space where people are living out the dramas of everyday life, just like a writer or director would do. As in writing, you have to set the scene correctly, down to the forks and knives lining up.”
With three restaurants in Chicago and one in Milwaukee, Avli is credited for sparking a renaissance in modern, upscale Greek cuisine that’s both artfully prepared and earthily authentic. Louie Alexakis, the Chicago dining pioneer who founded Avli, is managing partner of the group; Chicago sportscaster Lou Canellis, a local celebrity, is Avli’s third partner.
For Vlahakis, who took his first job with Alexakis at age 17, his new role as a co-owner means “a total paradigm shift, and a new dimension for me,” he says. “It means I’m with Louie and Lou in the driver’s seat of growing the group. We have a great product at Avli. Louie is brilliant. Lou is a very well-known local media guy. Standing toe-to-toe with them as partners, I’m so optimistic about where Avli can go.”
Vlahakis’ Greek roots run deep. His paternal grand-father came to Chicago from Crete in the 1950s, and his paternal grand-mother emigrated from Corinth. On his mother’s side, his great-grandmother came from Sparta, and his great-grandfather from Kalavryta. Though Vlahakis had never considered a restaurant career, experiences in Chicago’s Greektown left an indelible impression. “My nascent experiences of being a kid and growing up in the northern suburbs of Chicago meant getting in the car every weekend for Greek-town, with its wonderful characters and incredible, athletic service that met your needs so incredibly,” he says.
Through high school and his young adulthood, studying English, “I did not think I’d end up in this business,” Vlahakis says. “Funny enough, my junior-year English teacher called my name during roll call, realized my ethnicity, and said, ‘Vlahakis, what are you going to major in restaurants?’” he says, laughing.
When Vlahakis started college and began looking for weekend jobs, Alexakis “scooped me up,” he says. “And I fell in love with this live theater that is dining and hospitality. You get to meet people every day. I became obsessed. I read Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential. I just continued to explore the landscape.”
His enthusiasm became obvious, and Alexakis noticed. In 2013, Vlahakis became a manager at Avli Estiatorio in Winnetka, the original location. In 2018, he was bumped up to general manager of Avli Taverna in Lincoln Park. Three years later, Alexakis named him vice president of operations for the Avli group; in June 2024, Vlahakis was tapped to become vice president of brand development for Avli. He became a co-owner at the end of 2024.
“Our growth as a brand has been organic, so it’s actually very collaborative between Louie and myself,” Vlahakis says. “We’ll watch industry and cultural trends, so that if the espresso martini becomes a thing, we’ll think about how to Greekify it. We’ll add vodka to the traditional Greek frappe. And with the decor in our restaurants, it’s been quite collaborative as well.”
The Avli formula seems to be working. “Avli, a four-month-old Greek restaurant, is an important addition to the River North dining scene,” wrote the estimable Chicago Tribune restaurant critic Phil Vettel in 2020 of Avli’s third opening. “Not only is it a serious fine-dining independent in a neighborhood overrun with chain eateries and nightclubs posing as restaurants, but it’s also a new Greek restaurant opening at a time when luxury housing starts are gradually pricing Chicago’s Greektown out of existence.”
Indeed, Avli’s success offers a flipped-mirror image of Greektown, where beloved restaurants with names like Santorini and Parthenon have closed in recent years after decades in business. In a 2021 story, the Chicago Tribune declared that Greektown’s identity had “faded” as new businesses opened and luxury condo projects proliferated.
“Chicago’s Greektown, which grew up along Halsted Street, has a wealth of Greek history. But it’s a shame that it’s not what it was,” Vlahakis says. “I grew up going to those restaurants. The warmth there rings true in a real nostalgic way. But we want to bring that warmth into the 21st century and modernize it. We don’t want to be a flash in the pan. We want to be confident in what we put forward every day in great, modern, home-cooked Greek food.”
Alexakis, the managing partner of Avli, founded the group in 2009 in suburban Winnetka. He had grown up in the hospitality industry, working for parents who owned a chain of hot dog stands in the Chicago Park District for more than 50 years. After a decade of success with Avli Winnetka, Alexakis teamed up with Canellis to bring contemporary Greek cuisine to Chicago with the opening of Lincoln Park’s Avli Taverna in 2018. A location in the busy River North district launched in 2020; a year later, the group opened Avli on the Park in Chicago’s Lakeshore East neighbor-hood. Avli Milwaukee made its debut in September 2023, the group’s first foray out-side Illinois.
“Part of my role now is to think about where to go, both deeper into the Mid-west and beyond the Mid-west,” Vlahakis says. “We want to scale the brand, and we have such an authentic and experiential product― rustic, true, taverna Greek food.”
After two decades in the industry, Vlahakis also wishes the broader restaurant business would shift its focus back to “soul, character, and heart. Look at the broader trends, and what happened with Red Lobster or TGI Fridays. There’s so much corporate and private-equity influence that some restaurants have lost their subtlety, nuances, and whimsy. Some big groups almost operate as cartels, with some prefab formula in the background. Fortunately, I think we’re seeing a correction in that.”
Would Avli consider expanding into packaged goods or wholesaling branded products, as other hospitality brands have done? “I’d love nothing more than an Avli candle that smells like saganaki, or consumer packaged goods for our spreads,” he says, laughing. “But we’re focused on the restaurants for now.”
