Stacy Skartsiaris and her late husband Theo Skartsiaris immigrated from Greece and started a restaurant in Kalamazoo, Michigan because they needed jobs and knew how to cook, she said. It was aptly named Theo & Stacy’s.

That was in 1973 and she kept at it so much that her daughter forced Skartsiaris, 76, to at least take Sundays off. Business was so good, said MLIVE News that the family at one point opened two more but closed them when her sisters retired.

She didn’t speak English when they opened and learned by talking with customers, and 49 years later is still doing it. “I’ve been here so many years,” Skartsiaris said. “I know a lot of people. I see the kids. I see the grandkids. I’m part of this community,” she said.

She knows most of the customers of course, the regulars who’ve come for years, including lawyers and staff from the courthouse across the street, and knows what they like to eat too. The usual.

What’s the secret? “You have to respect people to have them respect you back,” she said. Oh, and there’s the food.