Apóla Greek Grill announced restaurant industry veteran Caroline Daniel as its newest franchise partner.
The burgeoning fast-casual brand has gained a loyal following for serving the ‘Most Authentic Greek Gyro you can get without buying a plane ticket!’ Apóla CEO Yianni Kosmides believes Daniel’s credentials makes her the perfect franchisee to expand on that loyal following, opening Apóla’s fifth overall location sometime in early 2023.
“Partnering with someone with the experience and knowledge that Caroline brings to the table is an amazing accomplishment for us,” Kosmides says. “The Apóla brand is steadily making waves in Southern California and attracting more franchisees with impressive résumés like Caroline’s will only help us expand even more. We just celebrated our first location’s fifth anniversary, and the best is yet to come over the next five years!”
Daniel brings more than three decades of experience in the restaurant, real estate and financial sector to her new Apóla franchise. She is a SoCal resident with a stellar reputation for empowering women and military veterans in the business sector. Daniel has been described by her peers as a steward in the community with deep ties to the area and large network of personal and business connections.
As the former owner of three independent restaurants in Glendale and Pasadena, Daniel understands the SoCal market and is ready to tackle it again as a franchisee. She was hooked on joining Apóla the minute she met co-founders Stefano and Yianni Kosmides. Daniel shares their enthusiasm for growing the brand in the underrepresented Greek cuisine category.
“Stefano described his family roots with such passion that it left a strong impression on me, since we live by the same values and standards in our lives and businesses,” Daniel says. “The core team running and breathing life into a brand is what sets them apart, and the Kosmides brothers’ expertise with the cuisine and vision for exponential growth is truly inspiring.”
Daniel is eyeing various locations in the SoCal area for her first restaurant, with the goal to select a site by the end of the year and open in early 2023. Apóla is partnering with Cloud Kitchens to open a ghost kitchen location in Anaheim this November. The brand’s first franchise location is scheduled to open by Dec. 1 in the Galleria at Tyler Shopping Center in Riverside.
Apóla Greek Grill has been featured locally in The Los Angeles Herald and California Telegraph, and on the lifestyle TV show This is LA. The emerging concept was ranked fifth in Fast Casual’s prestigious “Brands to Watch” in 2021.