WINDSOR -- After 33 years in business, the owner's of Pete's Place have served their final meal.
Owners Pete and Maryanne Panagiotopoulos are retiring from the homestyle restaurant on Wyandotte Avenue.
"You get to a point where you know it's time to let it go," says Maryanne Panagiotopoulos.
Pete Panagiotopoulos started working in the kitchen when he was just 12, in his home country of Greece.
"I think he's going to miss it more than he thinks, because that's all he's ever known," says Maryanne Panagiotopoulos.
After moving to Canada, he bought Frank's Place in 1986 and renamed it. Business got off to a 'sizzling' start.
"We had lineups out the front door,” says Maryanne Panagiotopoulos. “We had Windsor Arena, we had the market down the street, we had so many companies downtown that have since moved out of the downtown.”
Some bumps followed.
"We had to put a little money into the business to keep it going but we stuck it out and it paid off," she added.
Blair Gilbert is just one of many regular customers through the years. He says Pete and Maryanne have grown to be like family.
"Right off the bat, you just feel like you're at home," says Gilbert.
The restaurant is known for their home style cooking - omelets, clubhouses, home fries and soup.
Panagiotopoulos admits after 33 years, she and Pete are tired and ready for retirement, but locking the doors a final time won't be easy.
“A few of them I will see, but the majority of them I won't see and that's what I'm going to miss," says Maryanne Panagiotopoulos.
The couple plans to do some travelling in their retirement. They just had their first grandchild three months ago, so they'll take some time to enjoy their family as well.
