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An Albert Lea family with a long-standing restaurant in the community has branched out to offer a different type of cuisine for their third restaurant location in the city.

Gyro Kingz, at 2319 Leland Drive, opened for customers at the beginning of April, specializing in Greek food, with a few international menu options, too.

The Campos family has already made a name for themselves with The Taco King, which has locations downtown on Broadway and in a strip mall on Blake Avenue. The downtown location opened at least 20 years ago, and the second location has been open for about 10 years, said Jose Campos, the oldest son of Raul and Christina Campos.

Jose Campos said the family had previously had a Greek restaurant, Gyro Express, several years ago near Fountain Lake when at that time they only had the Taco King location downtown.

He said his mother had been a waitress at a Greek restaurant called Zorbas in Rochester for many years, and they had a cousin and uncle who worked there as well.

Gyro Express was open for two years, and while it was doing well, he said his cousin, who helped with the restaurant, decided he did not want to move to town and he did not want to drive back and forth from Rochester any longer because of his young family. At the time, the Campos parents also didn’t want to separate and have one of them at the Mexican restaurant and the other at the Greek restaurant.

“For the longest time, I’ve been telling my parents, we should put the gyros back, but our menu at the Taco King … I didn’t want to put it in there and have it get lost with all of the other plates we have,” Jose Campos said.

Then one day the landlord of the building previously occupied by Al’s Burgers and Chicken called and asked if they would be interested in opening up a restaurant in the space. At first, he said, they weren’t sure, but they ultimately decided to give it a try and start with a smaller menu.

They have been advertising solely on Facebook and letting word spread from there.

Jose Campos said he and his wife, Alethia, have come over to work at the new restaurant, and he estimated they have hired five new people.

Their goal has been to try to appeal to a different set of clientele than what their other restaurants serve and to offer another food option for the community.

Most popular on the menu are the gyros. They also offer a gyro bowl, gyro fries, chicken and shrimp kabobs and gyro salads. They have a small international menu that they have put together with Raul Campos’ former experience, including General Tso’s chicken, chicken fried rice, a grilled chicken wrap, a taco salad and others.

So far, Jose Campos said they have been pleased with the traffic they have seen at the business. They’ve seen many of their Taco King customers and a lot of new ones, too.

And he’s proud to say they have had repeat customers, which lets them know they are doing something right.

The restaurant has been made possible thanks to effort from the whole family as he and his parents have provided the recipes, he works there full days, his wife works at the counter a large part of the day and his brother, Alexis, worked on the construction in the building. Alexis Campos also has a detail shop that opened in 2017 called King’s Auto Spa on South Broadway.

Jose Campos said he and his family are appreciative of the support the community has shown their businesses over the years, and particularly through the COVID-19 pandemic. As a small business, they are not backed by a franchise, so every little bit helps.

“It gets tough sometimes, but that’s the name of the game,” Jose Campos said. “At the end of the day, we love what we do. I like the restaurant business. I like to socialize with people.”

The restaurant is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday. It is closed Sundays.