GIRGULIS FAMILY
All connected with the restaurant business for many years, the Brothers Girgulis (Bill, Jim and Sam) had the proudest moment of their lives at 10 o’clock Christmas morning, 1938, when the first meal was served at their new premises, The Elite. They felt, and rightly so, that they were offering the public a restaurant that for sanitary conditions, comfort and beauty, did not have a peer in Canada.
BILL
Bill, eldest of the Girgulis brothers, left Greece in 1910 and landed in New York. He also landed a job in New York. Within two years, he had worked in Texas, Chicago, Elgin, and Aurora in Illinois and then went to Regina. He stayed in Regina until 1918, working for the same company in the Commercial Lunch, Savoy Cafe, and Elite Cafe. He then moved to Saskatoon and on February 28, 1919, he and his brother bought the Elite Cafe from Sam Serif. For 20 years, short of two months, he conducted the Elite Cafe.
He has been a leading figure in the local lodge of Ahepa, formed here in 1930, and has twice acted as president. For many years he has been a member of the local Board of Trade, the Saskatoon Gun Club, and the B.P.O.E.
He has just one hobby. “Selling ham and eggs” is what he calls it, and he is very happy now as he believes he can carry on with his hobby in the new premises so much better than he ever could before. “This place just makes me feel like a million dollars,” he says. “Like a million dollars” by the way, is his favorite expression and he is known by it to thousands of persons from coast to const.
JIM
Jimmy Girgulis left Greece in 1911 and his first job on this continent was at Coney Island where, as he himself says, he was “top hand” as a seller of peanuts. Several months of that was enough for Jimmy and he headed to Regina, where he joined his brother Bill and they worked together until 1917, when Jim came to Saskatoon where he was one of the partners in the Savoy Cafe. After Bill came to Saskatoon, the two brothers went into the Elite Cafe together.
Jim acts as the buyer of the Girgulis Brothers organization and he is noted among the wholesale men as he always wants “the best.” There is not a piece of meat comes into the cafe that does not have his O.K. before it passes to the storeroom.
Jimmy is a great sportsman and one of the finest shots on the continent. He has won high honors year after year at the traps and his long-time average is very high. He also is a fine field shot and for a number of years always went north for big game. He also is a golfer of some local note. When in the army he was an addict of African golf, but gave up that pastime when he got back into civvies.
Something of a rabid hockey fan, at one time he owned his own senior hockey team, the Elite Hockey Club. Now, he serves on the Saskatoon Quaker executive.
SAM
Sam Girgulis is the youngest brother, and he was working in the Elite Cafe, after school hours, before he was out of short pants. He came to Saskatoon with his father in 1922 and attended school here for several years. Bill Moor, secretary of the Y.M.C.A. here is the authority for the statement that Sammy had only been in Saskatoon three days when he was able to say, in English, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” Sam, like the other brothers, had to learn the cafe business from the ground up and was dishboy, counterman, dining room waiter and head waiter before being allowed to take a hand in conducting the business. His specialty is the employing of the help and that is no small task in a business the size of that of The Elite.
Sammy has three hobbies: hockey, softball, and the talkies. He served on the Quaker hockey executive the year that team entered the Allan Cup finals. He has a very successful softball club and if you want to know what the best talkie in town is, ask Sam. He knows.
Source: Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, January 13, 1939, p. 6.; photos are from Hollywood Studios
JIM, SAM, AND BILL GIRGULIS
“So long, it’s been nice to know you!”
This line from a song that was popular a decade or so may express the feelings of many Saskatoon and Saskatchewan district residents as the Girgulis brothers, Bill, Jim and Sam, closed the doors of their cafe, The Elite, after being members of the Saskatoon business community for, according to Jim’s figures, a period of 54 and three-eighths years. When The Elite’s door were closed for the last time, the brothers walked away with a western Canada record at least of being operators of a family cafe business for the greatest period of time.
Although the writer’s acquaintance with the brothers extends back to the mid-20s when he was introduced to them by the late Vern DeGeer of “You Know Where” fame, when their business was located in the present site of Jack’s Food House, it would be next to impossible to compile the records they have established in the restaurant business. However, how many cafes can boast of the fact that one of their patrons, Arthur Upton, a retired accountant, had averaged two meals a day in the Elite, with the exception of when he was working out of town since 1917, and a second, Sam Ross, a veteran of the First World War and retired postal official, has maintained the same average number of meals per day since 1919?
Then, too, there are hundred of persons in this city and district who have been Elite patrons since the 1930s up to the present (1971) and a school curling official noted the annual banquet for northern school curlers had been held in the Elite since the branch of the sport was inaugurated in 1946.
Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, July 20, 1934, p. 12.
The Elite has been headquarters for many groups, especially those connected with the sport and entertainment world since its early days on 2nd Ave. Rosetown hockey fans crowded the building in the days of the old Saskatoon Sheiks of the George Hainsworth, Newsy Lalonde and Cook brothers days when Bobby Reid was the club trainer and who can still be found in the Elite any afternoon of the week. It was also a favorite haunt of the Quakers of the 30s and of Guy Watkins and his Art Harmony Orchestra who usually dropped in after their Saturday night dances in the Art Harmony hall.
Needless, to say, as the brothers were generous with their credit. Reporters, editors and printers at the Star-Phoenix always knew where they could sign a slip and get meals until pay day arrived. Jim admits their generosity with credit had cost them at least $50,000 in bad debts since they went into business.
There are hundreds of stories connected with the Elite in its early days and three of them stand out.
One concerned Hub Bishop, a prominent figure in hockey and football, whose favorite meal was a steak and French fries. Unfortunately, there were days and days when he was unable to enjoy his potatoes as his friends would circle the booth and help themselves. He eventually cured them of the habit by soaking the potatoes with tabasco sauce. One biteful was all that was required.
Then, there was the story the late Bill Moore, secretary of the YMCA, used to love to tell about Sam, then a boy in short pants, the costume of the day, who was attending school and working in the cafe. Bill who was having lunch at the time, remarked to Sam “My you have to work hard”. Sam’s reply was “You have to work hard, or you don’t eat around here”.
Also, there’s the one about Tim McCarthy, the “Joyous Fan”, a medicine man of the first water, who operated a jewelry store and auction room on 2nd Ave. near the Elite where his Saturday night auctions were an attraction and his lone “medicine” for sale, “Tiger Oil”, he alleged was made from the blood of Bengal Tigers. Although Tim had been eating at the Elite for years, he never noticed that soup and dessert were included in the price of the noon meal. He almost hit the roof when the waiter, best known as Steve, left a bill for the meal on Tim’s table and soup and dessert were shown on it. He fixed the bowl of soup when it arrived by filling it with salt and pepper. Then when the dessert was placed in front of him, he walked out the door, threw the dessert on pavement and stamped on it.
Although there were many hilarious moments around the Elite over the years, there was one fleeting few seconds a day or so ago that impressed Jim and Sam deeply. It came when a woman from the rural area, who had been patronizing the Elite every time from her girlhood days when she came into the city, broke into tears when informed the business was changing hands.
Jim, who attributes the cafe’s success in city and rural trade, to the fact they endeavored to maintain quality in foods and service. The quality of the meats served was credited by him to Pat Whalen of Canada Packers, who instructed him on how to select the best beef for their featured prime ribs, and to the federal government for its meat grading project which insured good quality meats for the consumers.
Over the years, the Elite has served many VIPs including the Prince of Wales in 1919; two prime ministers, John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson; three provincial premiers, Tommy Douglas, W. J. Patterson, and Jimmy Gardiner, to name a few.
The three brothers were born at Kastron, 30 miles from Sparta, in Greece. Bill was the first to emigrate, going to Texas in 1909 and moving to Regina the following year. Jim followed the next, landing at New York selling peanuts and popcorn on Coney Island for six months before joining Bill in Regina. Sam followed a few years later when still a small boy.
Jim worked for his uncle, Peter Girgulis, in Regina until 1917 when he started at the old Savoy Cafe near the old Post Office on 21st St. East. His partners were Tony Varves and William Shourounes.
In 1919, he and his brother Bill bought the Elite, with Bill as manager. Jim sold his interest in the Savoy in 1922 and joined Bill in the Elite, which was then located at the site of Jack’s Food House.
They moved to the present site in 1939 in a building constructed for them by the late Dr. P. D. Stewart. On the doctor’s death, they bought the property from the estate. Since then, building has been remodelled to include the coffee shop, cocktail bar, and the Blue Room.
Bill, the business manager for years, who now divides his time between Regina and Phoenix, Ariz, with the periodic visit to this city, was best known for his expression “Just Like a Million”. This optimistic remark was said to have saved the cafe from going bankrupt in the dirty 30s when the creditors decided such optimism should allow the firm to remain in business.
Anytime he ordered a meal, he insisted the waitresses, on threat of being fired, that they never tell the chef it was one of owners giving the order. He demanded that he eat the same quality and quantity of food as the customer.
Sam grew in the business from bus boy, waiter, head waiter, buyer, and during the last few years, manager when Jim’s health began to fail.
Jim, affectionately called “Jimmy the Greek” by his old friends, was undoubtedly the best known of the brothers through his long connection with trapshooting, golf and hunting.
He took up trapshooting soon after his arrival here and became known through those sports from the Atlantic to the Pacific on both sides of the border. He was secretary of the Saskatoon Gun Club for more than 30 years and helped to finance the construction of its clubhouse on what is now part of the Lorne Avenue industrial area on Idylwyld Drive and at its present site. The club held a bit of a bash in his honor a week or so ago and gave him a life membership. He also has life memberships in the Edmonton Gun Club and the American Trapshooting Association at Vandalia, Ohio.
Some of his greatest competition at the south Nutana site came from Fred Marty, Jack Evans, Paul Schwager, Charlie Allen, Frank Woodman, Artie Parkin, and Dr. Eddie Nagle. He was a member of two Canadian championship trapshooting teams and twice won the, Manitoba-Saskatchewan title, making a clean sweep of all the events in 1933. However, he feels his greatest achievement in the sport was coaching George Genereux to a gold medal in the Olympics at Helsinki, Finland.
Jimmy never missed going hunting for 45 years and had enough friends around Conquest and Outlook to locate for him. One Conquest family, the Rafoss family, generally had a hot breakfast waiting for him when he arrived at the crack of dawn. Keeping him awake to and from a shoot was one of the problems of his hunting companions.
He was a long-time member of Riverside Country Club, a life member of the Cosmopolitan Club, and a member of No. 144 Victory Lodge, A.F. and A.M., Royal Arch Masons, Preceptory and Regina Wa-Wa Shrine Temple.
Jimmy and his wife, Mary, have two sons, Billy, a lawyer, Harry a mechanical engineer and a daughter, Christine, housewife and, former librarian, and six grandchildren. His plans for the future include a trip with his wife to visit an old uncle in Greece, then to go to Phoenix to stay with his sister and Bill and try to improve the breed at Turf Paradise.
Bill expects to follow the same routine as in past years, spending the summer months between Regina and Saskatoon and the winters in Phoenix.
Sam, who has three daughters, Christine and Anne in Calgary, and Celia here, has no definite plans for the future other than to take a long holiday and then, just maybe, go back into business.
Both Jim and Sam intend to maintain their homes in this city.
Source: Walt Riddell, “Satisfying Saskatoon appetites for 53 years”, Saskatoon Star-Phoenix, October 27, 1971, p. 27.