The Souvlaki Lady
Elpida Vasiliadis
The neighborhood named her. Thirty years later, she’s still at the window — the same corner, the same griddle, the same recipe her mother taught her in Thessaloniki.
“If you work in a small neighborhood, everybody knows if your food is good or not. They trust me.”Elpida
From Thessaloniki
A recipe, carried across an ocean
Elpida grew up between Greece and a Greek family abroad, and as a girl she was sent to Thessaloniki — to Greek school, and to her mother’s small taverna, where she learned to cook souvlaki the way it’s done at home. She married young, and by 1983 she was in Astoria, a new mother in a new country.
A few years later, when work was thin, the family took over an existing pushcart on 33rd Street. She’s been on that corner ever since — through summers when the cart is an oven and winters when it’s an icebox.
“When it’s hot outside in the summertime, it’s really hot. And when it’s cold in the wintertime, it’s really cold. Other than that, I love being here.”Elpida
The name she never chose
“Everybody just calls me the Souvlaki Lady.”
She never put a name on the cart. The neighborhood did it for her, one order at a time, until it stuck — on the awning, on the tee‑shirts, in the papers. Her grandchildren have their own version of the honor.
“I have two granddaughters, and when I go home, they tell me, ‘Yiayia, you smell like a giant souvlaki!’”Elpida
On the record
A clipping she still keeps
A quarter‑century ago the Daily News called her souvlaki the best in New York — she still has the clipping. Since then the Times lined up for her, CBS put her on the news, and the Greek press crowned her the Souvlaki Queen of Astoria. She just keeps turning the sticks.
Walk up to the window — that’s the whole reservation system
Come say hello
The corner of 33rd St & Ditmars Blvd, Astoria. Most days, roughly 11:30am–7:30pm (closed Sundays, weather permitting) — (917) 750‑3748 to confirm.