‘The Eatery’ opens at ‘The Market’ at 60 Court Square

Published 7:25 pm Tuesday, June 27, 2023

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The motto of Yanni and Denise Tempelis must surely be “if you can do more, then, do more.”

Yanni is a seasoned, professional chef and Denise comes from a long line of scratch cooks of good merit.

The couple owns and operates The Pig Café, a popular cafeteria-style restaurant on Troy’s North Three Notch Street, Francesca’s Italian Restaurant on Troy’s downtown square and The Market, Food Boutique and Eatery, also on the downtown square.

Sign up for our daily email newsletter

Get the latest news sent to your inbox

The Food Boutique opened in late January with a variety of home-cooked meals including fresh vegetables and meat, that all take the cooking out of cooking,

And, now, the adjoining Eatery is open at 60 Court Square with a wide-variety lunch menu that features appetizers, salads, and sides and Eatery specials that include fish and fries, smoked pork chops, hamburger steaks and country fried steak, all with sides, a veggie plate and specialty sandwiches.

Hours are 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. Monday-Friday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday.

Yanni Tempelis talked comfortably Monday morning as the waitresses, Troy University students, busied about preparing for the Eatery to open for the day.

“I am a firm believer that the more traffic there is around the square, the better for all of us,” Tempelis said. “Everyone benefits.”

But owning four restaurants? All different, Tempelis said. “Each one offers a different dining experience.”

The Pig, he said, brings in those who need to eat and get back to work. Francesca’s is for those who prefer a more relaxed dining experience and traditional Italian food. The Market, means no home cooking and The Eatery offers family style, home cooking away from home.

Four different dining experiences, four reasons to dine,” Tempelis said.

“It is not easy to open a small business in the USA today,” he said. “You have to realize there will be good days and not-so-good days but to stay in business, you have to stay with the good days and forget the bad days.”

Tempelis said he and his wife did not expect to open a new restaurant and have everything, immediately, go as they would like.

“Denise and I believe in what we are doing and we believe that the more reasons there are to come to downtown Troy, the better business will be for us and for all of us,” Tempelis said. “The downtown is the heart of Troy and the merchants are the heartbeat. Denise and I believe in what we are doing have confidence in this new venture. Most of the renovations at the Eatery, we have done ourselves so we have a very personal interest in this place. We are standing on the strong foundation of The Riverside Café. We believe we can be successful or we wouldn’t be here.”