Yianne & Demitri Kritzas Are GREEK!

Photo by Hillary Odom

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The Kritzas Brothers were “raised” in Acropolis, their family’s Greek restaurant in Aiken. Yianne, the oldest, says he and Demitri once fought like “cats and dogs.” Now, the twenty-five and twenty-year-old sons of native Greek parents are peacefully living and dancing together. The brothers learned Greek Folk Dancing at age 12 and view the celebratory group dances as a form of expression. “It’s tradition for Greeks to dance at weddings and on holidays,” Demitri says. Yianne is an Environmental Health Manager for SC DHEC and an aspiring dentist, and Demitri is a finance student at USC Aiken and a future stockbroker. But both help out in the kitchen. “It’s a family business…literally,” Yianne says. Don’t miss the brothers cooking and dancing in skirts at The Greek Festival in Augusta October 9-11.

What they liked about wearing skirts: “Our costume is traditional military garb; it relates to our culture and past.”

And reading skirt!: “More men wear skirts than you think.”  

ONLINE EXTRAS:

1. Their skirts are reminiscent of those worn by the "freedom fighters" and have 400 pleats, one for every year of oppression.

2. At the Greek Festival, the brothers and their fellow church members will prepare and sell more than 1,000 pounds of lamb, 600 whole chickens, and 4,000 pieces of baklava.

3. Yianne and Demitri both graduated from Aiken High School and attended USC Aiken.