JOHANNESBURG – South Africa has a small but vibrant Greek community and they love their food, as do people discovering it and taking time, Greek style, to linger while they eat and enjoy the time with friends.

Chris Tatsakis, who runs the restaurant Ethos in Oxford Parks, a northern suburb of Johannesburg, was featured in The Daily Maverick newspaper and site that praised his work and menu.

He’s created GRK as a kind of fast-food style alternative to sit-down restaurants and put a twist on the traditional gyro with home-made sauces – including those with South African tastes – and cut fresh vegetables.

About five years ago Tatsakis was with three other chefs of Michelin starred restaurants that he knows, on the Greek mainland, and they talked about ways to improve gyro-cooked meat and solving its food-safety problems.

That led to GRK, where he showed how to spread freshly cooked pita with a choice of sauces and work in the vegetables and twists off the bottom to finish it off with a generous portion. “This is like being in Greece now,” he smiled.

That’s fast but you might want to eat slowly.