The former home of Lafayette Pharmacy sits next to Stella’s Grocery in Malvern Gardens. (Mike Platania photo)
The Giavos family is cooking up something new for a vacant building they bought two years ago.
The prolific local restaurant family is planning to open a new spot in the former Lafayette Pharmacy building at 1011 Lafayette St.
Dean Giavos said the family is creating an entirely new concept for the old pharmacy. The family portfolio counts seven Stella’s Grocery locations, two Kuba Kubas and two Continentals, as well as Sidewalk Cafe, Galley, Little Nickel, Stella’s and Perly’s.
While Giavos said details are still being finalized, it’ll be the family’s first new restaurant brand since Little Nickel opened on the Southside in 2018.
The Giavoses have controlled 1011 Lafayette since late 2022 when they bought it for $1.5 million after the owner of Lafayette Pharmacy retired. The 2,400-square-foot space is adjacent to their Malvern Gardens Stella’s Grocery and across the street from Stella’s restaurant.
Dean Giavos, who’s the son of proprietors Johnny and Katrina Giavos and oversees the branding and design of his family’s restaurants, said they hope to have the new restaurant open in about a year.
The Giavos family’s roots in the local restaurant scene began in the 1980s when family matriarch Stella Dikos opened the Village Cafe and Stella’s on Harrison Street near VCU. Dikos passed away this past summer at age 82. The family also previously owned Kitchen 64 on Arthur Ashe Boulevard, now home to diner Brick House on the Bouelvard, and 3 Monkeys Bar & Grill in the Fan.