Papapavlo’s expansion to Lodi booms with business 

In a melting pot like Stockton, there are many family-owned eating establishments. Established back in 1989, Papapavlo’s is a Mediterranean bistro and bar operating under the direction of owners Andy and Jennifer Pappas. 

“Papapavlo’s was actually a vision I had ever since I could remember growing up,” said Andy Pappas. Andy originally worked in real estate in Southern California. While he was living in San Diego, he fell in love with all of the amazing restaurants in Southern California over the course of a few years; Andy wanted to open his own restaurant. 

Andy decided to chase a new job at a very popular and well-renowned Mediterranean restaurant in San Diego, to which he got hired as a dishwasher, busboy, server, and cook. After six months of employment at the restaurant, Andy decided he needed more experience for his vision of Papapavlo’s. 

“…I felt I needed additional training professionally, Interviewed and got hired with a large company restaurant chain called Carols, Coco’s, El Torito,” said Andy Pappas. 

After working at El Torito’s for over a year, Andy felt he was ready to open his own restaurant. He found a building for lease on 7555 Pacific Ave., Stockton, and thus Papapavlo’s was born. 

In the 30-plus years Papapavlo’s has been in business, one element of the industry has signaled a major issue. All of the Papapavlo’s locations have been on leased land, meaning additional payments and bills for Andy and Jennifer Pappas. 

So, in 2019, Andy and Jennifer decided to open another restaurant, but this time they owned the land with it, making it truly their land. As for their location of choice, 217 N School St, Lodi, CA. “…We wanted an opportunity to build and develop our own land and project where our own Papapavlos could exist,” said Andy Pappas.

Andy and Jennifer had established a Papapavlo’s restaurant at this location already, so instead of adventuring out and finding another location, they bought the vacant lot next to their Lodi location and decided to expand the restaurant from a 1,650-square-foot restaurant to a 5,000-square-foot, full-bar, bistro restaurant. 

Although there were many difficulties, that said, it’s to be expected when making such a large move for an establishment, especially a restaurant. Their expansion of their Lodi restaurant was under construction for 5 years and then finally opened their doors to the public back in October 2024. 

So far, the new expansion of the old Lodi Papapavlo’s has been a hit; many regulars tend to enjoy sitting and enjoying drinks with friends, while many new faces come in every day and enjoy the experience of the restaurant-bar-bistro combo. 

With all of the good that comes with expanding, there will always be hardships. 

“…There’s the regular difficulties of dealing with the city and regulations and different items that they required us to do for the expansion of maybe the plaza we’re in, and next were also the same requirements for the new building,” said Jennifer Pappas. 

Whenever an independent business wants to make an expansion of their franchise, they will always have many difficulties, for example the city, mortgage’s, and most

Importantly, all of the paperwork. The paperwork is the more difficult part of expanding out for small franchises, as the owners need to do the paperwork themselves, most of the time without assistance.

With this comes a big question: why choose to expand in the first place? 

“Well, my husband, Andy Pappas, thought that it was a good idea for us as an investment for our future because we are self-employed and we don’t have a lot of the perks that people that work for other businesses have,” said Jennifer Pappas.

While when getting hired by a typical company, you tend to have multiple benefits like insurance, 401K, and medical assistance, for these small owners such as Andy and Jennifer Pappas, they don’t have all of that, or they must pay for it themselves, nor do they have a proper retirement, which is a partial reason for the expansion. 

But are the benefits of having an asset to retire with worth all of the trouble?

There were an extensive amount of difficulties when it came to expanding out their Lodi location, from the dangers of keeping their current restaurant open while the expansion was being built to doing that same mountain of paperwork that they had to do with their other locations for their current expansion. 

This wasn’t the only hard part of expanding, but the hiring of high-quality staff was. Andy and Jennifer Pappas uphold their restaurant quality, which also includes the staff, cleanliness of their locations, and safety. 

“It’s not very easy to hire high-quality employees, especially in this industry, because it has so much turnover,” said Jennifer Pappas. 

Despite all of the hardships and struggles, Andy and Jennifer believe it to be worth it, now having a property with their business to retire with, owning it, and being able to mold their own restaurant outside of the restrictions of a lease. Although, will they plan to expand again? 

“…Not on our own; it’s an exhausting job and a lot of work,” said Andy Pappas. 

Andy Pappas did mention that their older children do show a possible interest in wanting to help out with their parents operation; that would be the only reason for another expansion outside of what they have recently accomplished.