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Biography written for Euripides Pelekanos, CEO of Bareburger Group:
It was somewhere around 1996 when Euripides Pelekanos hit rock bottom. He had been coasting through life with no motive. He dropped out of Baruch College, then he got arrested. 19 years old, a stolen six-pack of beer, a Staten Island holding cell and the disappointment of his parents were all he needed to snap out of it. Euripides went back to school with a vengeance. He was a straight-A student, studying classes of all varieties, and although he never technically graduated, he learned a lot within those 170 credits. Euripides used school to acquire experience and education rather than make grades or get a diploma—and his untraditional approach panned out in the end.
Sputnik was a music venue and bar that Euripides opened in 2002. He was 23, and he never considered failure as an option. EP found a cheap space to rent, paying no attention to the neighborhood or the foot traffic that would be Sputnik’s potential clientele. He dreamt of being his own boss, and decided there was nothing in his path that would stop him. Seven years, zero profit and several maxed out credit cards later, Sputnik was closed. Euripides was left about 100,000 dollars in debt, which he rationalized to be equivalent to any college loans he would have acquired had he gone for the business degree.
Euripides had learned more in one almost-decade-long failure than anyone can learn in a university business program. He hadn’t listened to anyone’s advice because he assumed he knew more. He went in closed-minded and was spit back out broke, humbled, and ready to try again, this time less frivolously and with a little more thought. Using the organic and all-natural food menu that he had implemented halfway through Sputnik’s reign as a base camp, Euripides assembled his team, expanded the menu, and in 2009 opened the doors to the original Bareburger in Astoria, Queens. The immediate success was remarkable. He knows he was (and is) spoiled. There was already profit on the very first day. It was exactly as he assumed Sputnik would be—but this time EP implemented intelligence and strategy rather than arrogance and naivety. Opening Bareburger, Euripides relied on gut instinct. Now, as the company grows, he has learned to find the balance between instinct, analytics and practical business models. He has progressed from head-chef back-of-house guy to business leader, all the while maintaining his sense of humor. He works side-by-side with his business partners in joint offices. Jimmy is his brother. John is his best friend from forever. George is Jimmy’s best friend. It is a clan of misfits, essentially, who all get along really well and bring different skills to the now very successful table. Euripides ventures down the hall sporadically to visit the “millennials.” He often teams up with his younger employees to bother the older people in the office—he claims it keeps his energy fresh, but we know he is just a kid at heart.
Fear is Euripides’ best motivator. He fears most not living up to his own expectations. He is afraid that his peers don’t view him the way he views himself, that his internal reflection of his own daily performance and role do not match what others see externally. This fear is the reason he works to give it his all every day, all the while maintaining the nearly impossible balance so as not to burn out. Maintaining Yin and Yang, the balance of opposing philosophies is a daily challenge for Euripides. He hopes to continue growing; scaling up without losing the integrity of the brand. The worst thing that could happen to Bareburger is that as it grows, it loses its personality to the point of embodying the stereotype of a franchise or chain restaurant. Euripides works every day to prevent that, starting from the atmosphere of the corporate office. While there is always work to be done, there is also always fun to be had. Harmless jokes break up the daily workload; laughter lightens the concentrated silence. Euripides passes each employee's door with a mischievous smile, knocking and announcing, “I want to go bowling. we’re going bowling” in the middle of the day. As long as personality and attitude trickles down from the top of the company, Bareburger will always be a quirky, charming family no matter how big it grows. And Euripides will have nothing to worry about.