George Koikos

George Koikos was a Greek immigrant restaurateur who became one of the most familiar and best loved figures in Tallahassee, Florida's dining scene over a career that spanned roughly five decades. Born in Sparta, Greece, he moved to Athens as a boy after his family was forced to leave their hometown, and he later came to the United States in 1966 to join his older brother Jimmy, who had already established himself as a restaurateur in Tallahassee. George started out working at his brother's restaurant on North Monroe Street before striking out with his own ventures.

In 1969, just three years after arriving in the city, Koikos and his brothers opened The Spartan Restaurant and Caucus Rooms in the old Duval Hotel, serving coffee and short order breakfast and lunch. He lived in the hotel itself for seven years while he built the business, reportedly the only employee to do so. Over the following decades he opened or ran a string of Tallahassee restaurants, including The Brothers Three and The Brothers Three By The Sea with his brothers Jimmy and Pete, County Inn BBQ, The Surf and Turf, and Torreya Grill. He met his future wife, Karen, in 1976 and the couple married the following year in Fort Walton Beach. Karen became the financial backbone of the family's restaurant operations, handling the books and payroll for decades.

The crowning achievement of Koikos's career was Georgio's Fine Food and Spirits, which opened in 1994 on Apalachee Parkway and became a Tallahassee institution, known for Mediterranean and world cuisine influences, fresh local seafood and steaks, and an olive oil sourced from groves in his mother's village in Greece. Koikos was known for making the rounds of the dining room himself, greeting guests as friends rather than customers, a habit he kept up well into his eighties. The restaurant became a gathering place for generations of Tallahassee residents and drew well known local figures, including former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden, who was a regular. Koikos and his family also supported local causes, including the Children's Home Society and Big Bend Hospice.

George Koikos died on September 21, 2026, at the age of 92, according to his family. No cause of death has been made public. News of his death was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat, and it spread quickly through the local community, with tributes describing him as one of the kindest and most welcoming figures many Tallahassee residents had ever known. Funeral arrangements are pending and are being handled by Bevis Funeral Home.