Mykonos closes doors
Kali Bhandari
The Daily Illini
Once upon a time, in a tiny city called Champaign, on the corner of Fourth and Green streets, there existed a restaurant — nay, a campus hangout — called Mykonos.
It was a refuge to hungry souls after the bars closed. And for some, like Chris Heerdegen, junior in applied life studies, the joint served "the best bacon cheeseburger I ever had."
Siobhan Downes, sophomore in applied life studies said, "It was friendly, open all the time, I thought it had great customer service ... especially after they gave us two burgers free because of a mistake in the order."
This refuge has shut its doors.
Former employee Ben Stone, who worked there for three years, said original owner Taki Iatropoulos' death signaled the end of the restaurant.
Stone said Iatropoulos's widow could not handle running the restaurant from overseas and after a while, the campus hangout had to close.
Iatropoulos arrived in the United States in 1962 from Greece, his birthplace. After a long history of moving and looking for other opportunities, he opened Mykonos in December 1999.
Iatropoulos — known to customers only as Taki — ran Mykonos until he died from liver failure in January 2002. Since then, the restaurant had been keeping shorter hours. Two weeks ago, Alan Carne, who works in the same building, found the doors of Mykonos closed.
"I really liked it," said Jeff Jakob, senior in LAS. "I used to go a lot after the bars during my freshman and sophomore years ... I was real sad to hear the owner died, but I thought someone would keep it open."
Stone said he and other employees of Mykonos were interested in keeping Mykonos open, but it had already been leased.
Raquel Aikman, who took over the lease, is already renovating the place for her new eatery.
"I'm thinking it could be a lunch and dinner sort of place, with an European influence," she said.
Still, Mykonos remains in people's memories, including Veronica Gonzalez, graduate student and implementation planner for Champaign.
"I've lost a place that reminded me of so much of my undergraduate years," she said.
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