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Owner Pano Kodalonis is such a fixture at Dal’s Drive Inn, some customers won’t eat unless he’s in the kitchen.

If you want to be an award-winning sports journalist, you have to eat like an award-winning sports journalist.

Rod Black -- a five-time Gemini Award nominee and the guru of CTV Sports -- grew up in Transcona, one block away from Dal's Drive Inn Restaurant at 701 Regent Ave. W.

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(TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

"It was always kind of a Friday or Saturday night treat to have Dal's pizza and chicken; our family has probably been eating there for the last 40 years or so," Black says when reached at his office in Toronto.

Now, whenever Black returns to Winnipeg to call Blue Bomber games for TSN, he pops by his former haunt for a pepperoni and bacon 'za.

That's the same combo Black used to order when he was a fresh-voiced 19-year-old, manning the late-night sports desk at CKY's Polo Park studio. "I'd often get Dal's delivery for me and (anchorman) Clay Young. And if I recall correctly, the delivery charge from Transcona was more than the pizza."

Gus Danakas established Dal's as a takeout-only venture in 1967. For about 10 years beginning in the mid-'80s, Danakas juggled two locations -- the original spot in the Regent Park Mall, and a dine-in restaurant in "downtown" Transcona, at Regent Avenue and Bond Street.

Current proprietor Pano Kodalonis arrived on the scene a few years after Danakas sold his interest in both. "I knew that the (second) owner was in a bit of trouble, and Gus told me that it would be a good place to buy," Kodalonis says. "If Transconians like you, they will be the best supporters, he said."

Kodalonis heeded Danakas's advice and purchased the takeout half in 1996. The Bond entity, which had remained in the hands of owner No. 2, ceased operations six months later. Kodalonis unveiled his present-day, 4,000-square-foot restaurant/lounge -- complete with a wall-sized mural depicting the neighbourhood skyline -- in 1999. (Kodalonis' journey to the land of milk and honey and flamingos actually began in 1985, when he travelled from Greece to Winnipeg to visit his sister. During "the best holiday of my life," Kodalonis met his wife-to-be.)

"I don't live in this part of town, but I am more of a Transconian than some Transconians. I buy my insurance here, all my doctors are here, I sponsor a lot of local softball and spongee teams... I've made my living in this part of town and I will never forget that," says Kodalonis, 46, who now logs 45,000 kilometres a year commuting back and forth from his home in River Heights.

Kodalonis' food is just as well-travelled. The father of two has FedExed pizzas as far as Edmonton and Toronto. And once a month, a woman picks up six frozen pies to send to her family in Calgary. (Besides pizza and chicken, Dal's also offers a variety of burgers, salads and Greek specialties.)

Dal's is open six days a week, Monday to Saturday. But the hours on the door aren't carved in stone. The owner has personally delivered pizzas to shift workers at nearby CN, for example, as early as 9 a.m. and as late as 3 a.m. "When MPI had all those hail damage claims recently, people were working around the clock," Kodalonis says. "There were nights when they needed to eat at two in the morning, and I made sure I was there."

Talk about yer picky eaters: Kodalonis has regulars who would rather wait half an hour for a specific booth than plop themselves down at the first empty spot that comes along. One couple in particular refuses to sit anywhere but Table A, where they can see Kodalonis toiling away in the kitchen.

A problem arose a couple of weeks ago, however, when Kodalonis was busy fixing his air conditioning unit.

"The lady phoned the next morning to complain -- she told me her pizza tasted a bit off," Kodalonis says. "She and I talked it through, trying to figure out what the problem could have been. In the end, it turned out that it was because she didn't know where I was.

"If that's the worst complaint I ever get, I'm doing pretty good."

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 7, 2009 F3