Papa Cristo's

Ghost Corp Apparel — resurrecting iconic corporate ghosts.

Papa Cristo’s began in October 1948 as C & K Importing Company, when Greek immigrant Sam Chrys opened a market at 2771 West Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles, across from St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Its assignment was deliciously direct: bring Greek foods and wines to Southern California, one olive, cheese wheel, and coffee tin at a time.

In 1968, Chrys’s son, Chrys Chrys—better known as Papa Cristo—purchased the family business and built its restaurant identity. He traveled through Greece to study regional cooking, then brought those flavors back to Pico-Union. Papa Cristo’s Catering arrived in 1990, and Papa Cristo’s Taverna followed in the early 1990s, turning the market into a full-bore neighborhood feast headquarters.

For decades, the operation paired imported pantry goods with gyros, lamb, pastries, Greek coffee, and exuberant family-style meals. Three generations of the Chrys family worked in the business, which became a landmark of Los Angeles’s Byzantine-Latino Quarter. Rising rent and broader financial pressures finally ended service at the longtime Pico Boulevard location on May 4, 2025, after 77 years.

Our Papa Cristo's collection celebrates the Greek-market shelves, taverna tables, and stubbornly joyful old-school hospitality of a Los Angeles original. Consider it wearable proof that a proper meal, a packed deli case, and a little neighborhood mythology can outlast nearly anything—except, apparently, rent.