The Gyro Shop started out as a food truck in New York in 2008 before growing to three brick-and-mortar restaurants in Texas.
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 brick-and-mortar restaurant in Plano in July 2017. He soon realized he wanted to expand and his cousins Syed Zaidi and Faisal Maqsood—who are brothers—said they were ready to make a change from their IT careers and partnered with Waqar.
As co-owners, the trio have each taken a store to operate. Zaidi runs the Plano restaurant; Waqar is at the Houston location, which also opened in 2017; and Maqsood operates the Frisco eatery, which opened in 2021.
Their menu features recipes Waqar created for the New York food truck. Maqsood pointed out that New York-style gyros differ from others in that the meat is chopped, not sliced. In addition to gyro sandwiches, the eatery also serves the gyro meat in bowls, which are called platters, and on salads. These options are common in New York, he said.
