👨‍🍳 Not your usual backyard BBQ

Ten years ago, Panikos Panayiotou built a restaurant in his backyard. The father of three originally built the structure in honor of his own father, who passed away two years prior from small-cell lung cancer. 

It started as a passion project; now, ten years later, people book months in advance to try his famous cooking. 

Let's rewind: Panikos' father was in the middle of building his own backyard restaurant when he passed away. Panikos told Fox News Digital that to honor his Dad, along with his Greek heritage, he decided he would make the restaurant happen himself.

• The whole project took five months to complete; the Greek kitchen now seats up to 75 people and is only open six weeks out of the year. Panikos donates almost all of the profits to charity. 
• "My father always wanted to run a traditional Greek taverna from his home," he shared, "so it’s a way of keeping his memory alive and raising much-needed money for charity."
• Panikos and his wife, Michelle, volunteer their time for six weeks each year to cook and serve the community. In the ten years since their founding, they've donated $70,000 to local charities.

It's not just the charity aspect that has people booking tables. The food is seriously good. Panikos opens online table reservations two months in advance, and they're almost always booked within a few days.

❤️ Do it for Dad... Regardless of his restaurant's success, Panikos has never forgotten the reason why he started it all a decade ago: 

• "Our traditions are to have a relationship with your loved ones in the afterlife, so you do good deeds in memory of them. And this is what we do here every year. This is for him."