Born near Kalavrita in Greece which in turn is near the site of the original Olympics, he came to Australia in 1962, having completed his schooling and worked in various jobs, including some cooking. His sister paid the fare for the 19 year-old. His first responsibility on arrival was to find work, his second to begin repayment of his sister’s loan. He jokes about it now, but recalls that learning his trade and learning a new language from scratch and at the same time was a little testing.
He agrees with a friend that his English could be better but not that he should be “ashamed” of it. He is, after all, one of those people who have made his own success in an adopted country.
That success does not result from technical qualifications. It is more from a determination to offer a menu which suits the clientele, is prepared as well as possible from best available ingredients and is served by people who understand his emphasis on this aspect of his restaurant.For all these reasons, as well as offering involvement, his wife and partner, Eva, runs the bar, his son Peter, 17, helps out where and when needed outside his college studies, and daughter Helen, 15, fills in when really. needed, although her parents say “she is too young yet.” The front of house is run by George Eleftheriadis and John Liosatos, who understand the owners’ insistence on “old-fashioned” service.
Mr Mitsopoulos left Sydney after two years for Yass, but came on to Canberra shortly afterwards and worked as chef in restaurants in Civic and Belconnen. He bought his own restaurant seven years ago. It was the already successful Ambassador, established by the brothers Peter and Manuel Makas in 1954 as the first licensed restaurant in Canberra. It was renamed by its new owner to honour one of the founders. It was refurbished and the menu adjusted to include “international” dishes, with influences from Greek, Italian and Czech cuisine. Mr and Mrs Mitsopoulos work every shift that the restaurant is open, lunch and dinner Monday to Friday and dinner on Saturday. “There are generally two cooking, with, one kitchen hand, but three or more, cook as required. They prepare an average of 30 to 40 lunches and 40 to 50 dinners, although the restaurant can get frantically busy. One recent Friday evening it served 110, It seats between 70 and 50 and no seats are double-booked. Casual arrivals are invited to wait for the first available table, and many do. The cook tries to oversee all meals leaving the kitchen and to watch the plates coming back. He wants to know why food is left and insists that floor staff find out if they have not already inquired. The reason most often given is simply that he serves too-large portions. Petro’s has a wine list including wines much older than seven years and of which the owner is obviously proud. It is mainly Australian but includes some French and Greek. The prices seem very reasonable from what is known of the wines. It is probably, just another example of the personal attention to detail given by the owners.