Greek Fast Food Making a Robust Comeback : Merchandising: Once-scorned souvlaki has taken its place alongside the Big Mac. An international campaign is likely.

Scorned in the past for bad quality and a poor image, souvlaki, Greece’s own fast food, is coming back with a vengeance and modern marketing methods.

If fast food visionaries have their way, souvlaki will become as ubiquitous worldwide as a Wendy’s burger or a Big Mac.

The pita-wrapped skewered pieces of meat, some say, originated in ancient times, when the smell of charcoal-roasted sacrificial animal flesh rising to the sky was thought to appease the wrath of the Olympian gods.

Inventive Greeks are repackaging the tasty snack in trademark souvlaki chains, hoping to franchise nationwide and abroad what is probably the cheapest meal a tourist can have on the streets of Athens.

“It’s as if we opened the first McDonald’s in Moscow. People are lining up patiently until after midnight to buy our souvlaki,” said Thanos Stefanidis, development director for Amfitryon AEBE, which recently opened Loxandra’s Souvlaki.

Loxandra’s, conveniently and expensively located next to McDonald’s in central Syntagma square, the “Times Square of Greece,” is the first in a planned chain of shops.

“This first shop has shown very good signs among the giants of the world market,” Stefanidis said. “It was a challenge to come face to face with McDonald’s.”

The square commands the highest business rents in Greece, and the nearby Wendy’s and a Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant have helped push out Syntagma’s traditional coffee shops.

In less than two months of operation and with no budget for advertising, the tiny Loxandra’s has about 1,000 customers a day lining up for its souvlakis, Stefanidis said.

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Souvlaki shops mushroomed at every other street corner in Greece in the 1950s and suffered a big setback in the late 1960s when lax quality controls scared people away.

In a 1991 public opinion poll commissioned by the 3L S.A. company, which opened the first Greek souvlaki chain Pitta Pan, 60% of those questioned said they did not eat souvlaki because they did not trust the quality of meat and 79% said they only had it at carefully chosen restaurants.

“The survey showed people perceived souvlaki as dirty, not because of the food but the shops,” said Joe Modiano, co-owner of Pitta Pan. “Our aim was to give it a new image.”

The three Pitta Pan restaurants that have opened in Athens and the northern suburb of Kifissia since 1993 have the sleek, modern look that teen-agers like. And the look can easily travel abroad.

Pitta Pan has already had unsolicited proposals to open other franchises in North American and Europe, Modiano said. The company wants to expand and hopes to raise the number of shops to about 10 throughout Greece before venturing overseas.

“We think that within three to five years we’ll see the first Pitta Pan abroad,” he said.

Franchising seemed the ideal way of expanding in Greece, where people prefer to own a business, however small, rather than work for others.

The initial investment for a small Pitta Pan restaurant ranges between $120,000 and $200,000, Modiano said.

“It fits our mentality like a glove,” he said. “It suits our family-style business and we feel that the smaller shops with a personal touch are the best option for Greece.”

Loxandra’s also wants to expand by franchising.

“We hope to open one or two more shops in 1995. As of 1996 we should be opening five to six every year,” Stefanidis said.

The first shop cost about $265,000, a high price because of the expensive Syntagma location, but its sales were about 40% above predictions and it is expected to break even in one and a half years.

Loxandra’s combines the American-style fast, clean service with a traditional Greek look. Blue and ocher colors dominate the decor and sketches of old Athenian neoclassical houses grace their wrapping papers.

“We wouldn’t dream of doing it in a non-traditional way; we even hired an older, gray-haired man to cut the gyros in front of everyone just like in the old souvlaki shops,” Stefanidis said.

The food was modified to suit lunchtime business, without garlic in the tzatziki yogurt sauce so people could go back to work.