The following is an online companion to the feature in our March 2019 print issue, heading to newsstands now.
Stella Dikos has been feeding the community for more than 50 years. Her journey on the local dining scene began in the late 1960s at The Village Restaurant, owned by her husband, Stavros, and today there are three Stella's Grocery stores in the city, a namesake restaurant in Malvern Gardens and another Stella's restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina. Below are photos and facts that accompany the humble and heroic story of her evolution from a young Greek immigrant to a Richmond icon and a name synonymous with the comfort food we crave and the kindness we admire.
Stella in Greece as a young teenager. She loves nature and would often travel with her grandmother, Evangelia, to the forest to gather wild berries, dandelions, spinach and other greens, along with bundles of firewood. It was a bonding experience. She is returning to Greece in May of this year and hopes to hike the mountains again.
Stella on her wedding day, May 4, 1962, standing next to her father, Mikhail (left of the bride). Stella learned how to make a branzino sauce from her father. He would thread hot peppers, hang them to dry and preserve them during winter months. After, "he would get a mortar and smash them and squeeze lemons — oh my God, the lemons from Greece were so big and juicy," she says, and then add olive oil, a little Dijon mustard, paprika and fresh garlic. They didn't have ovens and would cook the fish on a rack outside or take it to the community oven.
Stella came to America in May of 1962 and began working at The Village Restaurant, owned by her husband, Stavros, later that decade. Regulars of The Village included novelist Tom Robbins, members of GWAR, poet Rik Davis, artists, students, Dirt Woman, and even included appearances from Bruce Springsteen.
At the corner of Grace and Harrison streets, an orange neon sign in all caps glowed invitingly. The Village Restaurant welcomed weirdos, eccentrics and everyone in between. Word about The Village spread up the East Coast, evening reaching Greenwich Village, and people whispered about a spiritually seductive realm in little ole Richmond.
At The Village Restaurant Stella pumped out subs and sailor sandwiches, aka Richmond’s sandwich, on rye bread barely visible under heaping mounds of pastrami, knackwurst and Swiss topped with brown mustard. According to Harry Kollatz Jr., author of "The Village Cafe: A History," longtime employee Jeff Kelso noted the famous subs at the restaurant were cheap, huge and good. "You could eat one of those things for a week," he said. While Stella worked at The Village she would send her grandmother and father, still in Greece, checks around Easter and Christmas. She often wrote to them as well.
The Village Restaurant offered immediate comfort for those who stepped inside and was viewed as a home for people without one. Stella was accepted by the community there and says, "I went from being so insecure and close to myself and started coming out and talking to people and listening to stories." Rita Lawrence, an employee at The Village and Stella's on Harrison, says, "Stella had such a warm quality, almost an innocence about her. A lot of it was seeing her working so hard; you wanted to get her to smile and laugh."
The Dikos children: Demetrios (left) was born in 1962, and Katrina (right) in 1966. Although Stella worked long hours, one of her favorite activities with her children was taking them to the ice skating rink. Stella bought them each their own pair of skates, and Demetrios took speed skating classes while Katrina took figure skating. "They loved it," Stella says. "It was a good environment." Katrina says her father taught her to have a positive outlook on life, and work hard but enjoy it. "He always used to say to me, 'People like to see you in your place, you need to be in your place,' and I'll never forget that." Katrina now owns 13 restaurants in the city with husband Johnny Giavos.
Stavros, Demetrios and Stella in the living room of the house where mother and son still live today. Stella says Stavros loved their children and "was very giving" as a father. Demetrios would later help run the bar at the first iteration of Stella's, on Harrison Street in the current Edo's Squid space.
Stella and Stavros in the original Stella's Restaurant on Harrison Street that opened in 1984. In the area of Greece near Stella's village, apple, orange and walnut trees grew abundantly. Around Christmas Stella would bake 300 small loaves of apple-walnut bread, reminiscent of her childhood, and hand them out to patrons. "They thought I was giving them gold, they were so thankful," Stella says. "I don't know how to explain how good I felt, that connection with the public."
Stella on a trip to Greece. She has always been attracted to art and architecture and talked fondly of a trip to the Louvre where she saw the Mona Lisa and Aphrodite. "It brings me to tears," she says, "the beauty of the human hands."
Inside Stella's house is a china cabinet filled with a collection of Lalique crystals, a dolphin figurine Stavros bought her, and red-painted eggs she made around Easter, a Greek tradition that she plans to pass on to her granddaughter, Maria Giavos. One of the eggs is engraved with the year '82. "I love my little things. I thought the beauty of these things would make me happy," Stella says.
This sign, which means "Grandma and Grandpa's" House in Greek, was a gift from Stella's granddaughter and hangs nears the door of the house Stella has lived in since 1962. Stella enjoys gardening and plants parsley, cilantro, rosemary, sage and lavender, along with flowerbeds around the property. "I love being out there digging and planting," she says. "People stop and ask [me] the names of certain flowers. I'm very proud of them."
