This Greek restaurant in West Bend shares a name with the latest COVID-19 variant. And it's making Corona t-shirts for laughs.

Sarah Hauer, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·2 min read
Vasilios "Bill" Tsiampas poses for a portrait Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, at 1505 S. Main St., West Bend, Wis. The Omicron Family Restaurant has been around for 30 years. "We are doing the best we can to take care of the business and our customers," he said.
Vasilios "Bill" Tsiampas poses for a portrait Friday, Dec. 3, 2021, at 1505 S. Main St., West Bend, Wis. The Omicron Family Restaurant has been around for 30 years. "We are doing the best we can to take care of the business and our customers," he said.

For the last 30-some years, Omicron has just been the name of Vasilios Tsiampas' restaurant in West Bend.

Recently, it became the latest Greek letter to name a COVID-19 variant.

Tsiampas, who goes by Bill, has a sense of humor about the coincidence.

"You tell the people, come on over," Tsiampas said. "We have plenty of food and we're not a virus."

The restaurant on Main Street in West Bend serves more than 200 menu items from American burgers to Greek gyros and Italian pasta dishes.

"Everything you order is good," Tsiampas said.

He opened Omicron Family Restaurant on Main Street in West Bend more than 30 years ago along with his brother. His family has been operating Greek restaurants for more than five decades. Tsiampas owned two restaurants in Milwaukee before opening Omicron in West Bend.

The Omicron Family Restaurant has been around for 30 years and now have the same name as the coronavirus variant, omicron. To make light of the situation, the restaurant is thinking about selling Corona beers and t-shirts saying "I got Corona at Omicron" in West Bend, Wis.
The Omicron Family Restaurant has been around for 30 years and now have the same name as the coronavirus variant, omicron. To make light of the situation, the restaurant is thinking about selling Corona beers and t-shirts saying "I got Corona at Omicron" in West Bend, Wis.

Update: Wisconsin's first official case of the COVID-19 omicron variant has been discovered

Tsiampas said his business has been up and down throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — he shut down completely for a time last year. The restaurant has managed to keep going.

Tsiampas picked the name Omicron — a letter in the Greek alphabet — because he thought it was different.

"So, it's catchy, it's easy to pronounce," Tsiampas said. In Greek, the letter is pronounced with an "OH" sound, Tsiampas said.

"This is the small 'o,'" Tsiampas said. "Micro means small in Greek."

Now, it matches the Omicron variant of the coronavirus that has disrupted life across the globe since early 2020. The newest variant has so far been identified in half a dozen states.

Tsiampas has plans.

"This will be good for a joke," he said.

He's going to buy some Corona beer (it's not on the restaurant's current drink list) so that customers can have Corona at Omicron. He's also ordered T-shirts to commemorate it.

Other companies that have found themselves in a similar position, like Delta Airlines, had different reactions. The CEO of Delta opted to call that variant by its scientific name.

"With the name, it didn't hurt us," Tsiampas said. "I think it's going to be a plus."

Sarah Hauer can be reached at shauer@journalsentinel.com or on Instagram @HauerSarah and Twitter @SarahHauer. Subscribe to her weekly newsletter Be MKE at jsonline.com/bemke.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Omicron Family Restaurant in West Bend has sense of humor about COVID