The Greek translation is: “Welcome to the re-opening of our family-run restaurant, Sotiris.”

It’s the kind of greeting customers might receive from the operators of a well-known eating establishment that has switched locations in the city.

Sotiris, a fixture on Plains Road for 14 years, situated beside a long-running mini putt golf course, has moved several kilometres to the east.

The business closed the doors to its existing location Sept. 30 and reopened for regular business two days later at 3135 Harvester Rd.

Maria Pagonis is a manager at Sotiris and one of three daughters of the owners, George and Mata Koutsogiorgas, who work at the restaurant.

She said the move was not as difficult from a logistical sense as it might appear with one site closing one day and the other opening immediately following.

“It’s all new equipment and furniture” at the new site. “It’s not as crazy as it sounds.”

What is difficult for the family, she said, is knowing that the man behind the business won’t be there to celebrate its re-birth.

The change of venue and expansion is a bittersweet achievement for the family-run business, said Pagonis, because her father died of a heart ailment at age 64 on Jan. 2, 2006 — the same day the deal went through for the acquisition of the new site.

In what is likely a little-known fact, Pagonis said Sotiris got its name from the man who owned the restaurant before they did. She said her family purchased the establishment in late October 1994, about four months after it opened, and retained the Sotiris name. Prior to being Sotiris, a Casey’s restaurant operated on the site.

The business’ new location on Harvester Road is just east of Guelph Line. The site most recently had been the Sonoma County and Sonoma Valley restaurants but has been vacant for several years. About 20 years ago it was a Zoo’s restaurant.

Needed more room

Pagonis said the new restaurant will be much like the current one.

“The reason we moved is to expand; we needed the room.” Seating at the new site will more than double to 380.

Among the food served by Sotiris includes traditional Greek fare like souvlaki, gyros, Greek salad, rice and potatoes and tzatziki sauce. North American fare like steak and ribs have been added for variety in recent years.

Pagonis said the new building has painted wall scenery similar to that at the original restaurant; each time it was created by artist Lauren Demerling.

The workforce at Sotiris is 35 full and part-timers. In addition to Pagonis and her mother, the eatery also employs Maria’s sisters, Harie Koutsogiorgas and Effie Gatsinos.

The restaurant has always done well, said Pagonis, but credited the 2002 movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding with keeping things Greek popular.

“I think that sparked a big surge. It didn’t hurt,” she said.

Food making has been a family tradition with the Koutsogiorgases.

“We did have restaurants in the past — Post Corner in Brampton in the 1990s.

“My mother has been in the business since she migrated from Greece. She helped her family run The Satelitelate from the late 1960s to early ’70s in Brampton as well as The Black Castle Restaurant in Brampton from late ’70’s to the ’80s.”