Victor Waqar, the original founder of the eatery, decided to move his family to Texas from New York and brought the concept with him. He opened his first restaurant in Plano in 2016. He soon realized he wanted to expand, and his cousins Faisal Maqsood and Syed Zaidi were ready to make a career change and partnered with Waqar.
“We decided we wanted to go into business with our family, so we quit our IT jobs and learned the ropes,” Maqsood said. “[We learned] how to run the business, how to make everything; [we learned] the recipes and how to cook. Thank God it’s going well.”As co-owners, the trio have each taken a store to operate. The Houston location opened in 2017 and is run by Waqar; Zaidi runs the Plano restaurant; and Maqsood operates the Frisco location, which opened in 2021.
Maqsood said their menu features recipes Waqar created for the New York food truck. He pointed out that New York-style gyros differ from others in that the meat is chopped, not sliced. In addition to gyro sandwiches, they also serve the gyro meat in bowls—which are called platters—and salads. Juice is also served. These options are common in New York.
“Gyro is a very popular New York street food,” Maqsood said. “Every other block has a gyro food truck in New York, especially in Manhattan, [the] Bronx and Queens.”
Customers can choose either lamb or chicken, or a combination of both for their gyros.
“I have customers who have been to Greece, and they say it tastes similar to what they had in Athens. I’ve never been there, but I’ll take their word for it,” Maqsood said.
Maqsood said co-owning this business is ideal.
“Whatever questions I have, [my relatives] are just a phone call away,” he said. “If I owned this by myself, it would just be me, and I’d have no one to ask. It’s good to have a partner with experience.”
The Gyro Shop
8549 Gaylord Parkway, Ste. 111, Frisco
469-287-2159
www.thegyroshoptx.com
Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily
