CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- It's been a slow, steady climb, but Manoli Stavrulakis is serving Greek food again. In 2005, he and his wife, Aoleen, lost Mykonos Cafe, the Capitol Street restaurant they'd owned for six years, where they served family favorites from their homeland.

Two years later, they opened Cafe Creperi in Kanawha City and served breakfast, dessert and savory crepes, coffee drinks and pastry.

They worked a little of their heritage in light meal crepes, adding kalamata olives, feta cheese and Greek dressing to a salad filling of spring mix, onions and tomatoes filling, but didn't serve meats because of a non-compete clause with their landlord. The Creperi Café shares a building with Penn Station Subs.

Last year, Stavrulakis opened a new Cafe Creperi at the Shops at Trace Fork, off Corridor G in South Charleston. He added light meal crepes filled with chicken, turkey, roast beef or gyro meat to the menu, as well as chicken, gyro and veggie pitas, salads and Mykonos' signature Lemon Rice soup. Breakfast crepes filled with eggs, bacon, ham, cheese or cream cheese with sweet or savory additions such as smoked salmon, fruit or marmalade are still on the menu, as are chocolate and ice cream crepes.

This fall, he plans to open another restaurant at Trace Fork, selling pizzas, and the spaghetti he made at Mykonos. Stavrulakis has signed a lease to convert part of the space currently occupied by Shoe Carnival into a restaurant specializing in spaghetti and pizza. He'll share the space with two other food vendors, possibly a made-to-order burrito franchise and a hamburger restaurant.

In each of his restaurants, Stavrulakis keeps his menu simple, serving a limited number of the dishes he does especially well. He serves his hand-sliced gyros with homemade tzatziki, or creamy cucumber yogurt sauce. He plans to limit the menu of his third restaurant to pizza and spaghetti.

"We don't want a big, confusing menu. We'll have two sizes and two styles of pizza, New York and Greek," he said. "I'll make the bread to serve with Mykonos spaghetti."

Mykonos spaghetti is pasta and shrimp with garlic, crushed tomatoes, onions and feta and mozzarella cheeses. He'll also make rigatoni baked with four cheeses.

He recently traveled to Texas to purchase a three-layer, rotating brick oven.

On the weekends at the Trace Fork Cafe Creperi, he makes special dishes customers remember and request from Mykonos. A rotating menu features roasted lamb, moussaka (a layered dish of eggplant, potatoes, ground meat filling and smothered in a creamy béchamel sauce,)  pastichio (another layered dish of pasta, ground meat and béchamel sauce,) lemon-oregano chicken and Greek beef stew. He serves all the dishes with rice and green beans in tomato sauce. 

He plans to add Greek wines to the menu.

During the week, he offers a vegetarian soup du jour such as split pea, cream of mushroom, lentils and white bean in addition to the Lemon Rice soup, which has chicken in it. Stavrulakis makes all his soups from scratch.

When the third restaurant opens, he and his wife will be even busier than they are now with the two restaurants that are open seven days a week. She runs the Kanawha City Creperi, and he operates the Trace Fork location. He'll spend most of his time at the new restaurant, leaving the management of the second Creperi to a well-trained staff. The two restaurants will be in adjoining shopping centers, so he can keep a close eye on both.

Stavrulakis said they've learned from the mistakes that cost them Mykonos, the first restaurant they owned after coming to America. Mykonos closed in 2005 as a result of a dispute with the landlord.

"That was not a fun time for us. We lost everything, and had to start from zero," he said. "It was hard, but people really encouraged us to keep going, and here we are."

Cafe Creperi, 55 RHL Blvd, is open from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday. Call 304-746-4040 or visit www.cafecreperi.com. Or the original Cafe Creperi, 4002 MacCorkle Ave., S.E. 304-925-4040. Open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

Reach Julie Robinson at jul...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1230.