Denis Bastas moved from Athens to Canada in 1965 at 17 years old and knows the restaurant business – still – opening Suvlaki Stix in Orillia, Ontario, just north of Toronto, with a simple premise: fresh, not frozen food.

“This is an authentic restaurant. When you go to Greece, this is what you expect to see,” he told Orillia Matters, and he has good help – his son Spiros is right by his side, keeping the family tradition going.

The family’s ties to Orillia go back more than 30 years; they looked after annual cookouts for local marinas. “We’ve been coming here for a long time,” Denis said.

“We thought that this city needs a restaurant that does authentic Greek,” Spiros told the site and his father said seeing the popularity and demand for annual cookouts gave him the idea to open a restaurant right there.

“Everything is made in house. It’s a labor of love. It’s stressful, but we do it.”

Spiro said: “Our whole menu is quality food. Most restaurants are working with frozen products, but everything we serve here is homemade.”