Hanging up his apron Longtime restaurateur set to move on from Maples mainstay By: David Sanderson Posted: 4:00 PM CST Friday, Dec. 29, 2023

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This article was published 29/12/2023 (1029 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but what about a 75-year-old restaurateur who is days away from retirement?

Effective Jan. 1, John Vagianos will call it a career at Johnny’s Maples Pizza Restaurant & Lounge, the down-to-earth Sheppard Street mainstay he helped co-found in 1977, and has been the sole proprietor of since the late ’80s.

A couple of weeks ago, Vagianos was doing his usual thing in the kitchen, when a server handed him an order for french toast, the kicker being that the customer wanted to substitute one of the resto’s massive, homemade cinnamon buns for the usual slices of bread.

“At first I was like, what are they talking about?” Vagianos says, seated at a corner table, where he has been joined by the restaurant’s impending owners, Mauro Felicioni and Don Mackenzie, who also run Jeffrey’s Restaurant & Lounge on Henderson Highway, and Justin Scheffer, 51, who worked on and off at Johnny’s for a dozen years, beginning at age 12.

“When you have a small place like this, though, you do everything possible to please the people who pay your bills,” he continues, crossing two thick forearms across an equally broad chest. “I cut the (cinnamon) bun in three, dipped the pieces in the egg-and-milk mixture, and tossed it on the grill. It looked so good when it was done that if I wasn’t leaving, I probably would have added it to the menu.”

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Vagianos, who was feted by many of his longtime regulars at a retirement party held in early December, grew up the second oldest of seven siblings in a tiny village on Kalymnos, a Greek island located in the Aegean Sea, 350 km southeast of Athens.

His parents kept a cow and a goat, and one of his earliest childhood memories is of selling milk on the street every morning before school, then returning to his post to peddle yogurt, as soon as class was through.

The married father of two and grandfather of five smiles, describing that task as a walk in the park compared to what came next. When he was 11, his dad acquired a small business that supplied construction companies with a type of sand needed to make stucco. His job: scale six metres down a ladder to the bottom of a narrow pit, then pass shovels-full of sand to his older brother standing on a raised platform, who would in turn transfer their gains to their father, at ground level.

Moved to Winnipeg in 1972

Vagianos, who left school for good following Grade 6, apprenticed as a cabinet maker before joining the Greek army at age 18. He was preparing to leave the military a few years later when an older cousin who lived in Winnipeg came back for a visit. She spoke glowingly of Canada and since Kalymnos wasn’t exactly the land of opportunity back then, he followed her lead by moving here in September 1972.

As it turned out, that same cousin’s husband, Jim Lambos, was one of the owners of the Dairi-Wip Drive-in, on Marion Street. He caught on there as a part-time cook, and he cites the iconic burger bar as being where he learned to speak English, one order of fries at a time.

His intention was to stay in Winnipeg for a year, before exploring the rest of the country. That plan was nixed when he met a hairdresser named Metaxia, who was also originally from Greece. They got married within six months of his arrival, and celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary last January.

In 1977, Vagianos, by then a full-time cabinet maker, was having dinner with his wife and her two brothers, when the topic turned to a vacant ice cream shop situated in a small strip mall at 670 Sheppard St., close to where they lived. Both of his brothers-in-law were welders, but because Vagianos had restaurant experience from his tenure at the Dairi-Wip, they suggested they take over the property, and convert it into a takeout locale specializing in pizza, burgers and fried chicken.

Maples Pizza, as it was originally called, became Johnny’s Maples Pizza after Vagianos bought his brothers-in-law out, in 1988. The name above the door was extended to include “Restaurant & Lounge” seven years later, when the operation more than doubled in size.

(In 2004, Vagianos welcomed his most famous guest ever, the late Robin Williams. The Oscar- and Emmy-award-winning actor was in Winnipeg filming a movie, and following a scene shot near the 74-seat restaurant, the two men shared a few laughs over soup and sandwiches.)

Vagianos, whose clientele includes scores of ex-pat Winnipeggers who make a point of picking up jars of Johnny’s spaghetti sauce or a fresh supply of apple fritters whenever they’re in town, says if you had asked him about hanging up his apron at this time last year, his answer would have been no, not a chance.

Last spring, however, he was in the hospital suffering from septic meningitis. Lying in bed, day after day, was the shove he needed to finally listen to his wife and adult children, who’d been imploring him for over a decade to retire and start enjoying life more, he says.

Scheffer, his former cook, picks up the story from there.

“I grew up with a single mom, in low-rental housing a block over from here, and John became a father figure to me pretty much, when I started working for him,” he says, clapping Vagianos on the shoulder. “We’ve stayed in touch through the years and when I heard he was selling the restaurant, I invited my friends Don and Mauro over, to see what they thought of the place.”

Scheffer introduced Felicioni and Mackenzie to Vagianos while they were there. It wasn’t until a few hours later, however, that he dialled his old boss to admit the three of them hadn’t dropped by solely to grab a bite. Rather, they were seriously interested in making him an offer.

The new owners promise to adopt a don’t-fix-what-isn’t-broken approach, once they’re officially handed the keys. That said, while the menu will continue to boast tried-and-true favourites such as fatboy burgers, chicken souvlaki and Maples Special pizza (salami, pepperoni, mushroom, green pepper and onion), they’ll also introduce some of Jeffrey’s signature dishes to the mix, as well.

One change they are beholden to is reverting back to the restaurant’s original tag of Maples Pizza, Scheffer says. One of Vagianos’s grandsons is preparing to market a line of salad dressings and spice rubs under the Johnny’s brand, so it was only right to give Vagianos his name back, they felt.

As for the sale, it turns out there is one final clause left to be negotiated.

“Since we met John, he’s always going on and on about how beautiful Greece is, so I think the three of us should head there ourselves, to see if he’s telling the truth or not,” Mackenzie says with a wink.

“That’s right,” Felicioni pipes in, adding, “and I’m sure John wouldn’t mind looking after things for us, while we’re gone, right?”

“No problem, my friends,” Vagianos says. “Just say the word.”

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca