When 20-year old Anna arrived in Canada in late October, 1972, she was shocked the minute she stepped off the airplane. Snow covered everything. It was several feet deep, something Anna had never seen back home in Greece. Her husband Manoli, whom she had known for only two weeks at that time, took her suitcase, tied a rope to it and used it as a sled to pull his shivering bride across the cold terrain.
“I could feel how cold the ground was. Oh my God, I thought,” Anna recalls, smiling.
Now, forty years later, she looks back on the hard times they encountered along the way but somehow pulled through together. She has not lost her faith in hard work and God. Owning a restaurant means long hours and little time for complaining.
Anna and Manoli Chondroyannos opened their first restaurant in 1986 on Vancouver Island.
“We raised three little children while working from six in the morning till past midnight,” Anna says, the memories causing her smile to fade momentarily.
It took mental and physical strength to get through those years. Money was tight.
Anna remembers one incident when she was praying to the Lord for them to survive: “I was taking out the trash to the back yard. There was a trail that led past the property to the nearby high school. I spotted a pair of boots that had been thrown by the dumpster near the trail, and decided to pick them up and put them away properly. I lifted them up and saw something red inside of them. It seemed out of place, and I pulled it out. It was rolled up money (Canadian dollars at that time were red), four dollars, which was enough to buy some food for the family.”
After ten years, they moved to Abbotsford, and opened “Greek Delight.” During that time Anna finally managed to visit Greece after having been gone for over a decade.
“After that I went again in 1995, and that was the last time I saw my mother alive,” she recalls sadly.
From Abbotsford Anna and her family moved back to Vancouver and found a prime spot to open their restaurant “Manoli’s Tavern.” It was two minutes from the film studios. They used to get crews in that filled the whole venue at once. It was busy, hard work.
In 2002 they decided to sell the establishment and came to Anacortes.
“The customers are our friends. It makes me happy to see people come here with smiles on their faces”, Anna says, teary-eyed with emotion. “I feel lucky to see those smiles and I thank God.”
There are often hugs when regular customers visit and Anna sees them off with a heart-felt “God Bless” wish.
The couple goes to Bellingham on Sundays to the Greek Orthodox church. Once a year they take their one and only vacation.
“We go to Florence, Arizona, at Easter. There is a monastery there and we go to a three-hour long mass. It’s a soul-enforcing experience,” Anna states.
As for living in the United States, Anna is content.
“You make your home where you are. I have visited Greece, but I was always ready to come back. I feel at home here. My kids grew up in the United States. We have a balance of cultures at home,” she explains.
Anna’s son decorated the cozy Greek Islands restaurant on Commercial Avenue.
“Some things we found in antique shops here, some things we brought from Greece. That statue by the door cost us $300 to put on the plane,” she explains.
Anna crocheted the lace curtains hanging on the windows.
“Back home everyone does that. When it’s hot in the afternoon, they sit and crochet,” she recalls with a chuckle.
Years of hard physical work are beginning to take their toll. Manoli is having trouble with his shoulder muscles and needs an operation.
“They said the recovery will take six to seven months. We can’t do that, we can’t take a break,” Anna says.
So they keep working and smiling. God bless.