Cypriana To Bring Mediterranean-Style Cuisine To HoCo With New Eatery In Maple Lawn

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — Cypriana will be bringing its Mediterranean-style cuisine to Maple Lawn, a 605-acre mixed use community in Fulton.

Cypriana has had a sit-down location in Baltimore City since 2017. Its second location in Howard County will occupy 5,595 square feet at 8171 Maple Lawn Boulevard and seat 180 patrons indoors with an outdoor patio for additional seating.

The eatery first started as a small food cart traveling along the sidewalks of Baltimore City in 1990 when founder and owner Vassos Yiannouris and his wife Maria Kaimakis began offering meals based on the recipes perfected in Cyprus, Greece, by his mother and grandmother.

“Local residents would go out of their way to become invited guests at our homes to eat the glorious meals,” Yiannouris said.

Eventually, Yiannouris set up shop in a downtown food court then opened Cypriana Cafe at the corner of Baltimore and Light streets. He also served food within a space at the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center before opening his first official restaurant on 39th Street near Johns Hopkins University in 2017.

“Our mission, and the primary reason we have built such a strong following, is our commitment to creating ultra-authentic, homemade Mediterranean food using only the freshest ingredients with absolutely no preservatives or sugar,” Yiannouris said. “We feel so strongly about serving clean food that you cannot even find a bottle of ketchup on our premises. Nearly every food item is created on-site, including falafel and hummus, which is made from scratch using fresh chickpeas, rather than those from a can. Our pita bread is created, stretched and freshly-baked in our kitchen and served warm, and these little differences are noticed and appreciated by our customers. You simply cannot be authentic if you do not use pure ingredients.”

Yiannouris said that the Cypriana menu has evolved over the years and has been influenced by several historical events that shaped Europe. Recipes are borrowed from the food tastes of the medieval-era French Lusignan monarchs of Cyprus that led to the development of a refined Cypriot cuisine that fuses French, Middle Eastern and Byzantine cooking styles and ingredients. The Lusignan kings imported cooks from Syria to work in their royal kitchens. Recipes are also taken from the Armenians, who moved in the early 1990s while escaping from genocide, he said.

Yiannouris’ wife Maria serves as executive chef of Cypriana and her training includes spending
time “working with the old women in Chios,” followed by five years of tutelage from a French-trained chef. She has made multiple trips to Cyprus to perfect the family recipes that go back decades.

“Maria is extremely passionate about preserving recipes that have been passed down through generations of families and creating dishes that replicate the intended flavor, color and consistency that were originally created. Cypriana specializes in Cypriot cuisine, but we are not the typical Greek restaurant," Yiannouris said.

Customers favorite menu items include the octopus, hummus and salad dishes, as well as the slow-cooked vegetables served with freshly-baked pita bread.

“Due to our French cuisine background, we also have the most amazing Bechemel sauce,” Yiannouris added.

The Cypriana team decided to open a second location in Howard County after many patrons from outside Baltimore City who frequented the restaurant requested that option be considered.

“We have been familiar with Maple Lawn for many years, so when an opportunity presented itself, we did not hesitate. The upscale community has everything we were looking for including dedicated customers from the on-site residential neighborhoods and commercial office buildings. With several fine dining restaurants successfully operating in the community, people are accustomed to having a sit-down experience at Maple Lawn. It is also strategically located to draw customers from a large radius," Yiannouris said.