Red Top restaurant runs in the family

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This article was published 23/11/2014 (4268 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six months ago, Peter Scouras decided to update the Red Top Drive Inn, the iconic St. Boniface diner he runs in tandem with his mother, Vicky.

The interior of the Red Top, at 219 St. Mary’s Rd., hadn’t been touched in years, Peter figured; at least not since 2007 — the year John Scouras, Peter’s father and the restaurant’s longtime owner, died unexpectedly during a trip to Greece.

“It’s not like I was planning a major overhaul or anything; I just thought we’d fix up some of the tables and chairs, slap on a fresh coat of paint — that sort of thing,” Peter says. “But my mom was fearful, just the same. ‘People like it just the way it is,’ she told me. ‘If we change, they might hate it and stop coming.’ “

After all, Vicky remembered what happened after a food rep convinced her husband to try a different brand of ketchup in his legendary chili sauce. Customers complained so vociferously, John was forced to switch back to what he’d been using after only four days.

There was no need to worry this time around. Business at the Red Top has been so brisk since the facelift — and since a guest spot on Food Network Canada’s You Gotta Eat Here! — that a regular named Kenny leans over to offer a piece of advice, in case Peter is considering more changes in the future.

“I think you should put in a VIP entrance, like they have at those fancy bars downtown,” Kenny jokes. “That way old-timers like me wouldn’t have to wait around for their favourite table.”

“OK, I’ll take that under advisement,” Peter replies, slapping Kenny on the back and telling him to enjoy his ham and eggs.

 

— — —

‘I’m trying hard to be

the kind of guy my dad was’

— Peter Scouras

 

“It wasn’t incredible — it was crazy,” says Vicky, after a scribe uses the wrong adjective to describe her husband’s humble beginnings.

John Scouras and his older brothers, George and Gus, were born in Krokilio, Greece. In the wake of that country’s civil war, the boys’ parents decided to send their sons to Canada to escape the threat of more hostilities. George moved to Winnipeg first, at the age of 15. Gus joined him two years later, and John brought up the rear, arriving in 1954 at age 15.

“They didn’t know anybody — they couldn’t even speak English,” Peter says, shaking his head. “The way I understand the story, they lived in a tiny, downtown apartment where they all slept in one bed. A couple of Greeks who owned burger joints took pity on them and gave them their first jobs.”

The guys must have been quick studies. Within a few years, George had opened the Big Boy restaurant on Portage Avenue, while Gus and John established the original Junior’s on Main Street, in the building that now houses VJs. In 1960, Gus and John were approached by two St. Boniface businessmen. The duo wanted to open a restaurant on the site of a former lumberyard to cash in on the drive-in craze that was sweeping across North America at the time. Fans of the Scourases’ fare, they invited Gus and John to join them.

Gus moved over to the Red Top, while John stayed downtown at Junior’s. John joined Gus in 1970, when the brothers bought their partners out. Gus retired in 1997, leaving John in charge until his death seven years ago.

There were a lot of rumours floating around after John died that Vicky was going to sell the business. Peter — a kicker for the University of Manitoba Bisons football team at the time — wasn’t having any of that.

“This is the only place I’ve ever worked,” says Peter, 30, who started washing dishes for his father at the age of 13. “My dad always tried to push me in other directions, which is honestly the only reason I went to university in the first place. But I never saw myself as a doctor or lawyer or anything. For me, it was always the restaurant.”

Peter made his intentions clear to his mother. She told him, “In that case, I’ll be with you all the way and help you out as much as I can.”

The Red Top’s signature menu item is the Monster Burger, a six-patty behemoth served on an oversized bun loaded with cheese, mustard, chili sauce, lettuce, tomatoes and pickles ($15.99). Which makes us wonder: Did Peter ever ask his dad, “Wouldn’t five patties have sufficed?”

“I have no idea what they were thinking, but I do have some original menus from the ’60s that show the Monster Burger has been here since Day 1,” he says. “I play rugby, and it’s become a tradition for anybody on the team getting married to down one the day before the wedding. So far, so good: Nobody’s missed getting to the church on time, yet.”

Like his father did, Peter tries to separate himself from the grill as often as possible to patrol the 88-seat room, coffee pot in hand. He enjoys kibitzing with high school students from nearby Nelson McIntyre Collegiate — kids who think nothing of ordering poutine for breakfast — as much as he does with octogenarians such as Ray “Shampoo” Charambura, a member of the 1950 Winnipeg Blue Bombers who shows up every Wednesday evening like clockwork for his four-piece chicken dinner.

“Even if it’s just light conversation like ‘How’s your meal?,’ people seem to appreciate that the owner’s around if you need him. My dad was really good at that sort of thing, and I’m trying hard to be the kind of guy my dad was.”

 

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca