Fil Triantafillou doesn’t know why they keep coming back.
But longtime customers of his east-end Barrie restaurant know why, and it’s not just because of the great food.
Triantafillou — who describes his Greek name as ‘trying to fill you’ — owns Fil’s Cafe on Duckworth Street and has a one-on-one way with his customers which they enjoy almost as much as the plates that arrive at their tables.
Defining Fil without some input from some of those folks would be difficult: his down-to-earth conversations and his homemade hot sauce — flavourful and a little zesty on both counts — define the experience.
“It’s such a great place. Usually, you don’t need a menu because they know what you want,” says Bonnie Tasarich, who lives in the neighbourhood. “Fil is so very, very friendly and has been here for such a long time, long before I moved to Barrie.”
Triantafillou remembers a different Barrie back in the day when he first set up shop in 1983 and has now been in Canada for about 50 years.
“I come from Toronto. I spent a few years there and the rest is here,” he says, peeling boiled potatoes for the round of customers coming through the door the next day at the Duckworth Plaza eatery.
“It (Barrie) was simple. The people were warm and friendly and it was a small town,” he says, adding it’s not quite the same these days.
“It’s not a community anymore, it’s a bedroom of Toronto,” Triantafillou says. “We’ve seen a lot of changes: a lot of students from the college. Most of them are good kids. But there are some who are not so good and not getting anywhere.
“There is no respect anymore,” he says of some of the unruly types. “We can see it on the road. This is the Autobahn of Barrie here at Grove and Duckworth.”
But with one of his granddaughters propped on his knee, ‘Papou’ still loves his cooking gig.
His loyal customers — some of them second generation or even third generation — keep that grin on his face.
“They don’t learn. They keep coming back,” he says with a laugh. “I don’t know why, but they still do. What can I say, they’re special. They could go to Timmies or Subway, but they keep coming back.”
The walls at Fil’s are peppered with images of local — and not so local — nostalgia, along with references to fishing.
“This is where we started and we’re still here,” he says of Barrie, adding there's no place he’d rather be, despite the growth that has transformed the city he grew to love in the mid-1980s.
“It’s getting too big, unfortunately,” Triantafillou says. “But it’s close to up north, much better than Toronto. There’s a little fishing, and more fishing: lots of sun, wind and water, lots of bugs — and sometimes fish.
“If there was a way I could work one day a week and fish for six, that would be nice.”
Connie McGinley and her husband, Andrew, have been drifting through the door of Fil’s for about 10 years.
“It’s a family atmosphere. You don’t have all the hustle and bustle of the big restaurants when you can’t necessarily hear things because it’s so noisy,” she says.
“I come here and I can relax. The food is great and it’s a lot of fun coming here. They treat you like family.”
Triantafillou says he has no interest in retiring, although he’s not in the kitchen as often as he used to be.
“We used to be open seven days a week, but (my) batteries are running out.” (There’s that grin again.) “Now we’re six days a week and closed on Mondays. My kids help out. If they are called upon and there is a need, they are here.”
Anyone coming into the restaurant can pass the time waiting on their order just looking at the walls that are filled with photos, trinkets and, of course, fishing references.
“Different people come in every day. I don’t know where they come from,” Triantafillou says. “I talk to them. I tell them what I do, but do they care?
"No. They have their own life. Everybody is a traveller.”
