The title of this piece is an English idiom meaning “I don’t understand” that I used to introduce the story of Chillicothe’s Grecian Gardens Restaurant, which features Mediterranean cuisine as part of its menu. 

Peter George Trilikis was born in 1906 and came to the USA in 1920. He became a restaurant owner when he established the Busy Bee Snack Shop at 414 Hamilton Boulevard in in Peoria in the early 1950s.  In 1955, Peter sponsored his twenty-one-year-old nephew, also named Peter George to migrate to the US. The younger man changed his name to “Pano” which is a shortened form of their Grecian given name, to eliminate confusion. Pano served a two-year period in the US Army and returned to Peoria where he also entered the restaurant industry. Pano’s younger brother Louie also came to the US and took up food service and became a partner in the T&T Snack Shop at 225 SW Madison Street in Peoria. Pano worked at the Busy Bee Snack Shop until he opened his own restaurant named “Athens” at 145 SW Jefferson in 1966.

In the late 1970s, downtown redevelopment in Peoria created the need to relocate The Athens eatery. Pano looked for a new location and found the vacant building which had previously been the home of Michael’s Steakhouse in Chillicothe. Michael’s had moved from North Chillicothe to Plaza Drive and had been in business there a little over two years when it ran into financial problems and closed.  Pano bought the building on Plaza Drive and moved to Chillicothe. After a month of redecorating the building with a Grecian Motif, named the business “Grecian Gardens” and opened for business February 9, 1979. Louie came to work with Pano. Louie, who passed away in 2021, left Grecian Gardens in the early 1990s to run another restaurant in Peoria. Pano kept the Chillicothe business until 2000 when he sold the business to Jimmie and Dawn Chronis. Jimmie is Pano’s brother-in-law. When you go the “The Greek’s” check out the “Gyro Plate.” It is one of my favorites at Grecian Gardens.