For 40 years, Adelaide’s Barnacle Bill’s at Plympton has been “home” to 72-year-old Sofia Tsantes, who with her late husband Paraschos became the nation’s first Barnacle Bill’s franchisees after taking over the store opened in 1970.
She has run the business alone since losing Paraschos, also 72, to glioblastoma.
Tsantes says “life was amazing” before the death of her husband, a Cordon Bleu chef and father of their four daughters.
“He always had the dream that one day he would open up a little seaside restaurant somewhere and cook the things you’d expect to find (there),” she said.
Leaving her bank job to join him, she learned hospitality on the job.
“I didn’t know much about cooking, I knew nothing about hospitality … but once you had got through your first Good Friday – we’d have queues at the door – you were fine,” she said.
The restaurant became part of their family life. “(Coming here) hasn’t been like going to work, it’s been like another home and that is what my husband used to call it … it was his ‘home’,” she said.
Tsantes says life without him has at times been “overwhelming,” but praises her daughters’ support.
“All my girls … have an amazing work ethic … they are our legacy,” she said.
With her contract expiring on Valentine’s Day, she will step away. “I’ve got six grandchildren and I just want to be ‘Grandma’,” she said.
“I’ve so many favourite customers who I will miss … I keep joking that when I leave I’ll just order a cup of coffee and sit out the front.”
Source: The Advertiser.
