Calgary restaurateur Gus Christopher was a fair boss but strict – his kids learned that too | Canada Voices

Constantine Gus Christopher: Family man. Immigrant. Visionary. Restaurateur. Born Oct. 5, 1935, in Rodia, Greece; died Feb. 24, 2024 in Calgary, of heart failure; aged 88.

Gus’s formative years were spent under Axis occupation in Greece. He was born in a small village to Bessie and Sam Christopher. His tales of those days were filled with adventures: fleeing to mountain caves to hide from Nazis and drinking hot chocolate donated by relief workers. During these years, Gus was bitten by a rabid dog and while he recovered, the men in Rodia caught the dog and put it in a large wicker basket. At night, they drove by a Nazi encampment, threw the basket over the wall and fled. While playing, young Gus came across an explosive and it detonated in his face. He suffered no visible injury but in his 30s he developed a cataract. Later in life, failed cataract surgery resulted in vision loss in one eye.

Gus was 16 when his family emigrated from Greece in 1951. They settled in Calgary, where his Aunt Agatha lived. He attended high school and worked three jobs to help support his family. He learned English quickly and helped other Greek immigrants and provided interpretation services at the request of the courts.

Gus met Julie Angelo in 1957 at the Hudson’s Bay Co.; she had moved to the city from Drumheller, Alta., to attend business college. She was smitten by Gus’s charm and good looks, and they married in 1959. They had four children, Catherine, Michelle, Sam and Dean, all of whom were raised with a deep appreciation of their roots in Greece and Drumheller.

Gus was a voracious reader, as was Julie. Their children grew up with books, magazines and papers piled in every room of their home. Despite the rabid dog bite, Gus made sure the family always had dogs around to love. Gus also kept birds and once had so many caged canaries, budgies and finches that Julie thought the family needed a cat.

One of his first jobs was as a busboy at the Maple Leaf Café in downtown Calgary.

In the following years, he opened a succession of successful restaurants in Calgary, including Michelle’s in the 1965, Tiffany’s in 1973, Paesano’s in 1974, Tiffany’s on the Mall in 1975, the Bistro in 1982 and, finally, Benny’s Bistro and Bar in 1990. He had a keen eye for quality and efficiency, which led to him once weighing the risks of raising the cost of a cup of coffee to 10 cents at Michelle’s.

He was prominent and innovative in the restaurant business. A photograph of Gus and former prime minister John Diefenbaker and his wife Olive Diefenbaker as they stood in front of Tiffany’s Restaurant hung in the den. He was written about by Peter C. Newman in the 1998 book Titans: How the New Canadian Establishment Seized Power and described in 2024 by a local newspaper as the “Resto Titan of Calgary.” Employees worked for him for three weeks or 13 years. He was fair and honourable but the rules were to be followed. It was the same at home. He was a kind but strict father. His children all received new cars on their 16th birthdays, but they also had to be home no later than 10 p.m. until they were 21 years of age. Or else.

His final restaurant, Benny’s Bistro and Bar, was named after Julie’s English springer spaniel. It was his favourite, and where he met author W.O. Mitchell, who told him a story about the kindness he’d received during the Depression at the Maple Leaf Café. Gus realized his uncle had been one of the men who helped Mr. Mitchell and the two became friends from then on.

When Benny’s closed in 2004, he began importing olive oil from Greece to sell at farmer’s markets. He did this until he was 85 and was sad when he was physically unable to work.

Julie died in 2014, and his youngest son, Dean, died a few months later. He missed them tremendously but his loneliness abated in 2019, when he was reacquainted with Margaret Gibbins, a high-school sweetheart.

For Gus, adversity that might have felled another person was something to learn from. Then, it was time to move ahead.

Catherine Christopher is Gus Christopher’s daughter.

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