About Golfs
Golf's Steak House and Seafood Restaurant, located at the former site of Kitchener's historic Riverside Park, overlooking the Grand River, was established in 1976 and has since been operated by us, the original owners.
For a quarter of a century we have taken great pride in serving you, our valued customers, consistently fine quality food, prepared by our fine chefs and graciously served in a warm, relaxing atmosphere.
Our reputation was built on quality and we are dedicated to continuing our tradition of providing our customers with fine dining, hospitality and enjoyment in pleasant surroundings.
Mike Kanellis
Emmanuel ( Mike ) Kanellis came to Canada in
1964, from a southern peninsula of Greece
called Peloponnesos. He grew up in a village
where his father did mixed farming. He has
three sisters and four brothers. Already two of
his brothers and a sister had come to Canada
when he, just out of military service, was job
searching. Realizing the difficulties Mike was
having finding work, his brother suggested
“why don’t you come over, I’ll take you to a
restaurant .. you can get a job washing dishes”.
So, the young man came with little more than
his hopes, dreams, and willingness to work
hard.
Sure enough, he started his first job only
four days after arriving ...... washing dishes!
Any other job, at a factory or store required
a minimum knowledge of English.
He worked twelve hours a day, six days
a week and was paid fifty cents an hour, for
ten months. Then he moved to another
restaurant where he got the opportunity to
start cooking and learning to be a chef, he
was also teaching himself English.
But most importantly, with his pioneer
spirit, he set the plan to realizing a dream.
Mike came with an open mind, to
learn and to work hard “the people are
polite and eager to help you even if you
don’t speak English, they go to every
effort to try to understand.” At first he
had to memorize the menu, and watch the Chef
very closely, "learning a lot, form A to Z."
Meanwhile he was economizing,
in every possible way he knew how to, in
order to put money aside.
He had earlier realized that Canada
was full of opportunities, and he planned
to work hard to move up from the sink to
brighter horizons.
As Mike moved from full-time Chef, to
managing the entire operation, observing
every detail, and formulating his own way
of handling matters and viewing prospects
of growing and improving the business, he
soon was ready to be an owner, and the
opportunity presented itself from one of
his previous employers, who approached
him offering to sell him his restaurant.
Mike was now 27 years old, and had
only been in Canada for four years, but he
was ready to take the new challenge ..
and although he ran that place for nine
years, he constantly faced a problem with
parking space, so it was natural that when
he found an advertisement for his current
location (14,000 sq.ft), he overlooked the
concerns of some skeptics regarding its
history. Offering top quality service and
food at excellent prices has kept people
coming back for more!
Mike now shares his pride, as well as
most details of his Golf’s Steak House and
Seafood with three sons, Tom, George and
Gus, who work with him.
Mike still works a double shift almost
every week, he checks on everything, all
the time, and you will only find him in his
office early in the morning or late at night,
otherwise he is attending to his customers,
and making sure everyone is satisfied.
To work so hard one must also rest hard.
Mike enjoys travelling .. “I’d like to visit all
those places I learnt about in school”, and
of course he does return to Greece often.
(view from Atrium)
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