National Gyro Day in USA

The Gyro was first introduced to the American public by George Apostolou in 1965 at the Parkview Restaurant, Chicago, IL.

Gyro, a Greek dish of roasted meat served in a pita, usually with tomato, onion, and tzatziki, a cold, creamy sauce made from yogurt, cucumber, garlic, and various spices. Gyro meat—typically lamb, beef, pork, or chicken—is roasted on a vertical skewer and sliced off in thin, crispy shavings as it cooks. The word gyro comes from the Greek “turning” which refers to the meat that is slowly cooked on a turning vertical rotisserie.

Beginning in the Eastern Mediterranean, a vertical spit of stacked meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks was developed in the 19th century in Ottoman Bursa.