Preston’s Europeans: popular Greek restaurant Greekouzina explains what drew them to Preston and how the city became their home

Eighteen months on from their official opening, the Post caught up with one family run Greek restaurant to discuss their journey in the city.

Greekouzina on Friargate is now a firm favourite in Preston, and is run by Greek couple Bill Karastergios and Christina Laporda, as well as their eldest son Efthymis.

Originally from the Northern Greek city of Kastoria, Christina owned private foreign language and computing schools back in their home country whilst Bill ran restaurants, but the couple told the Post that it was their economic and academic aspirations that brought them to Preston five years ago.

Christina, a 52-year-old English Tutor at UCLan explained: “Kastoria has amazing natural beauty, it is mountainous, and the town is surrounded by a lake, but unfortunately, it is quite poor and because of the financial issues that Greece had, recession was very harsh in the area.

“When the years were good, we had three schools, and then we shrunk to one when the recession started. So we started thinking about what we want to do with our lives, because that was not the lifestyle we wanted, and that was the time when my elder son, Efthymis, was finishing high school and deciding what to do with university and we thought that it would be nice to open a door to another country. We started looking into British universities and UCLan was one of the options for him. So our first trip to Preston was in 2014, for a UCLan Open Day, and we liked the area; we come from a small town so we liked the fact that Preston is a small town, it has this cosiness, this friendliness, this atmosphere that we enjoy in life, and the rest is history.”

When Efthymis was studying his Computing degree, the family visited him often and they noticed that Preston was missing a Greek fast food outlet, and so, combined with their growing love of the city, the family saw an opportunity to bring something new to Preston’s food scene.

It was when Christina saw a vacancy for an academic English tutor at UCLan that the rest of the family made their permanent move in September 2018, with their youngest son enrolling at Archbishop Temple Church of England High School.

Christina said: “Everything seemed like it was calling for us, and regardless of the fact that it seems like a huge step for a family, on the other hand, some things happened quite easily, I mean, I was able to find a flat and move my family within three days, which is crazy. So it was a combination of good luck, good timing, and a little bit of planning, because as I said, my son had been here since 2015, so we had visited the area again and again, and had started putting some things in place.”

Upon moving to Preston, the family started with a small Greek takeaway on Marsh Lane, and found the people of the city welcomed the cuisine with open arms.

Christina explained: “We were lucky to discover many Greeks and many Balkans liked our food, and we were also lucky to discover that the Prestonians travelled to Greece a lot so they knew the Greek food, and they would actually come to the takeaway using a few Greek words that they had learned from their holiday, so the business started flourishing.”

The welcome reception meant the family took the big step in December 2021 of opening a larger restaurant premises on Friargate. Despite the difficult timing, with the problems created by Brexit combining with the start of the cost of living crisis and energy bills hike, the family say business is still doing well, and Bill “loves what he does.”

Aside from their restaurant’s popularity, Christina says the family themselves have been welcomed into the city by Prestonians, noting: “We have good family friends who came to the takeaway as customers, and they opened their houses and their hearts to us.”

Inspired by her own experiences as a Greek entering British culture, and as a lecturer mentoring international students, Christina is currently completing a PHD on cultural competence at UCLan, looking at how people are able to coexist and communicate with those from different cultures.

She explained: “As a person who came from a different culture, I could easily see the difficulties that many of the international students had, and it was not the language barrier itself, it was the cultural barrier, which we tend to ignore, but it is always there. Intercultural competence seems to be one of the next decades most important skills.

“The other day, I was having a discussion with an Italian colleague, about a group of students, half of whom were Chinese, one was Spanish, and one was Ukrainian, and all of us are in one university in the UK, so this itself shows how important intercultural competence is.”

When asked if the food culture was the most obvious way in which Greek immigrants have influenced Preston, Christina agreed “definitely” but noted that in general there is “a strong Greek community” throughout the city, citing the many Greek researchers and scientists at the university, as well as Greek dentists, and doctors at Royal Preston Hospital.

Christina added: “In general, hard-working Greeks love the United Kingdom. It's not a coincidence that I have many Greek friends in Preston, the UK offers opportunities to hard-working people, especially those with some expertise.”

Aside from being a hard-working nation, Christina says the Greeks love “fun and dancing and singing”, so the upcoming Eurovision “has always been a celebration” back at home.

Now they are in Preston, Christina says the family will still be enjoying the festivities, adding “Eurovision is a form of a celebration because it marks the beginning of the summer period and also the fact that different countries come together and through songs, try to communicate. I think that as an idea, this itself is important. Singing and dancing are things that soften our souls in a way.”