Pizza Express earns provincial award

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This article was published 13/03/2017 (3222 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Like father, like son, like grandson.

The Vasilarakis family’s ongoing efforts to secure their next generation a “better life” has led to three generations running Brandon’s Pizza Express restaurant.

Last week, the Family Enterprise Xchange named Pizza Express Manitoba’s Family Enterprise of the Year during a ceremony in Winnipeg.

Owner Gus Vasilarakis said that he couldn’t quite believe it when “Pizza Express” was announced as the winner.

“We’re just a small little pizza restaurant in Brandon,” he said with a shrug, adding that while there were other worthy businesses up for the award, he’s proud to have received it on behalf of his family’s longstanding efforts.

“We never expected anything like that, but I’m glad to get some recognition after 35 years of hard work,” he said.

“Hard work” might be an understatement, given the steep hill the Vasilarakis family climbed in order to get to where they are today.

Gus said that he remembers a time when he was living in Greece while his father, Antonios, worked at hydroelectric projects in northern Manitoba in order to send money back home for his family.

The Second World War had left little by way of opportunity in Greece, forcing the family’s hard-working and determined patriarch to seek gainful employment elsewhere, tearing him apart from his family for two-year stretches, after which he’d fly back to be with his family in Greece for six-month breaks.

It was hard work that paid off, with the family relocating to Brandon as a unit in 1979.

One of Gus’s uncles had a pizza restaurant that the balance of the family learned the ins and outs at before opening Pizza Express in 1982.

Antonios, a carpenter by trade, gutted the building at 360 10th St. in order to rebuild it as the family restaurant the community knows today.

Antonios left the restaurant due to health concerns in the late ’80s, at which time Gus took over its operations, having spent his early adulthood running it alongside his father.

Like Antonios did for his children, Gus and wife Antoinette tried as best they could to set up their three children for success in life.

Their approach was through supporting their children’s post-secondary aspirations.

Eldest son Tony pursued post-secondary studies and at one time even considered taking up law school, but ultimately decided that his ideal life with wife Brittany and eight-month-old daughter Ayla would be at Pizza Express.

Gus wasn’t so sure.

He tried as best he could to discourage his son from taking over the family business, but ultimately gave up when he recognized how dedicated and passionate his son was to keep the family legacy going.

“Those family values, that’s super important and that has carried this restaurant for 35 years,” Tony said. “Because it’s a family business, we put a lot more into it, and it’s really cool to be part of it and to say ’this is my family’s business.’”

Tony has already introduced online ordering and a social media presence to the restaurant in order to hit up the younger generation and ensure the restaurant’s continued viability in this digital age.

When Gus retires within about five years, Tony will be on hand to take over the family business.

It’ll be curious to see whether little Ayla adds another generation to the family effort, Tony said, adding that for now he’s proud to see his family’s hard-won legacy continue.

While his efforts aren’t as physically strenuous as his grandfather working at northern Manitoba hydroelectric projects an ocean away from his family, the restaurant business is no easy field to work in.

Even though the restaurant is only open to the public in the afternoons and early evenings, it’s a 24/7 business, Gus said — “a stressful life” that he said that he tried to spare his son from living.

Still, Tony said that he’ll be happy to keep at it, adding; “I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”

Having already secured the 2017 FEX Manitoba Family Enterprise of the Year Award, Pizza Express is now a contender for the national awards in Halifax, to be held in mid-June.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB