'He was our hero': Fotis Fatouros, fixture at John's Lunch and Pleasant St. Diner, dead at 77

If you were ever lucky enough to dine in a restaurant owned by the late Fotis Fatouros, there's a few things you grew to expect.

A line snaking out the door, full of eager customers looking for a bite of clams or fish and chips.

The noise coming from the hustle and bustle of the kitchen, the sound of deep fryers sizzling, the clamour of glass plates being bussed and loaded with fried food, the intoxicating scent that lingered in the air.

And the sight of Fatouros himself, running around the eatery, checking in with every table and taking orders, seemingly able to remember every last detail without ever writing anything down.

Stephen and Tommy Fatouros opened Pleasant St. Diner in 2017 after learning the restaurant trade from their father at John's Lunch. (Pleasant Street Diner/Facebook)

Fatouros died this week at age 77 in Halifax. He leaves behind his wife Panagiota, sons Stephen and Tommy, daughter Zaharenia, three grandchildren, and a strong legacy.

Fatouros was a beloved restaurateur who spent over 50 years in the business, including over 30 years at John's Lunch in Dartmouth, N.S., which he once co-owned. More recently, he was a regular presence at Pleasant St. Diner, which his two sons opened in 2017.

"He's been our teacher, our hero," said his son Stephen Fatouros this week.

"He was a marvel. He was great in the kitchen, a fast, hard worker. That generation is built different than our generation, you know? Get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, go to work, come home at 10 … and just sacrifice for your children."

'You come here once, you can't stay away'

Fatouros was born in a tiny village on the island of Lefkada off the coast of Greece, but left his family behind to move to Canada in the 1970s, determined to find something new.

"We like to think Dad came to his beloved Canada in search of true love," wrote his family in his obituary. "Which he found in our mother Panagiota."

After landing in Halifax, and falling in love, Fatouros fell into the restaurant business. He built a reputation that had locals coming from near and far to visit him at his restaurants, some of whom have been dining at his establishments for five decades now.

"The people who come here for the first time," Fotouros told CBC News back in 2007. "It's like you start smoking. You come here once, you can't stay away."

Fotis Fatouros serves customers at John's Lunch in this file photo from 2007. (CBC Archives)

As recently as this past year, he was still getting up early every day to head into the restaurant owned by his sons, helping to prepare fish in the morning, and then returning at night to check in with the diners and see how they were doing.

But it was Fatouros, as much as the food itself, that kept people coming back to his restaurants all these years.

"He always felt that when someone came to your restaurant, you treated them like family," said his son Stephen Fatouros. "He'd love to go to the tables and see how everyone's meal was … and he always asked people how they were doing before anything else. That was his joy, talking to people and joking with people."

The work could be thankless, and the long hours exhausting, but as an immigrant who came to Canada with $50 in his pocket and an uncertain future ahead of him, his son says he rarely complained. Instead, he put in the work.

"My Dad, just due to necessity, became a cook. He found a job. He enjoyed it. And the rest was history."

A funeral service will be held Friday at 1 p.m. at St. George's Greek Orthodox Church in Halifax.

Full details are available here.

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