Gyros - Island Style

At two in the morning around Lion Square in Heraklion the souvlaki shops are still turning their cones, because the town-centre counters stay open around the clock every day of the year. The cone is usually pork, seasoned with Cretan oregano and a marinade each shop keeps to itself, and the cutter drags a long knife down its browned face so ribbons of crisp edge drop straight onto a warmed pita, still spitting fat. Tomato and onion go in next, then a spoon of yoghurt sauce and a handful of fries. Heat climbs through the paper as soon as it is rolled, and the first bite is crackling pork, cold tomato and the sour cut of the yoghurt, with the oregano arriving last, green and slightly bitter.

The cutter and the griller work in step. The pita comes off the heat as the knife comes down the cone, and the roll is closed while both are still giving off steam. A cone left turning too long between orders dries at the edges and loses its flavour, and a pita grilled too early goes cold and stiff on the plate. On Crete the bread is often baked close to where it is sold, and olive oil, thyme and oregano are pantry basics, so the seasoning on the meat tastes of hillside herbs before it tastes of salt.

Size is the island signature. Heraklion pitas are filled heavily, and the fries ride inside the bread with the meat, where they soak up yoghurt and fat and go soft at the edges while the pork stays crisp. A load like that needs a broad pita, stretched around the filling, with the bottom pinched shut against drips. People eat standing at the counter or on a bench in the square, leaning forward over the paper. Ask for a gyros pita in the city and the answer may come back as a souvlaki one, since both words name the same warm pita on Crete.

The same shops sell a second vessel, the psomaki, a small grilled loaf with its centre removed and filled with gyros or souvlaki, tomato, onion, yoghurt and chips. The Thraka shop in Heraklion is named as the first to offer it. The crust holds a wetter filling than a folded pita can, and a toasted smell of baked bread rises from the loaf before the first bite. Both versions share the cone, the sauce and the fries, so the order turns on how much crust the eater wants around the meat.

These counters belong to a late-night circuit. Heraklion has long had all-hours eateries called xenihtadika, and elsewhere in Greece the same kind of place is a patsatzidiko, named for its signature soup, patsas. A gyros pita at three in the morning is a hot, cheap, one-handed meal, which is why the cones around Lion Square rarely sit idle. The square, with its fountain of lions, is where the town centre gathers, and the grill houses around it wrap gyros and souvlaki in pita until dawn.

Heraklion, about 1988

No record names who first put a gyros cone on a Heraklion counter, but one dated shop is documented. Brothers Christos and Tassos Alexakis opened their first souvlaki shop on Martyron Avenue about 1988. Their selling point was size: they were the first in the area to serve large portions, and heavily loaded pitas remain a draw in Heraklion shops.

Christos Alexakis also invented a gyros machine and was awarded a patent for it. The brothers' marinade for the cone, built on Cretan oregano and other herbs and kept as a secret recipe, flavoured the pork that went into each warm pita with yoghurt sauce, tomato and onion.

By 2006 the brothers ran three shops: the original on Martyron Avenue, a branch in Lion Square and a newer one on Papandreou Avenue. Thirty staff worked between them, and about 1,000 pitas of gyros or souvlaki left the three counters each day.