I don’t know the exact date I first set foot in Devine Foods, though it was in the very early days when the now legendary restaurant had started as a Greek takeout spot.
But I do remember I thought the Shrimp Athenian was the best seafood dish I had ever eaten. And I still do.
Three decades later, Devine Foods is one of those very special places that simply cannot be fully explained, much less duplicated.The restaurant closes its doors on Nov. 15.
For starters, where else could you go and get a great Greek meal prepared by a great Greek chef who would be raising great Greek hell in his native language when things weren’t going as he liked in the very open kitchen?
Or as the longtime and much loved night manager Lyn McNeely always called it, “dinner and a show.”
But when the dinner rush was over, Angelo Trifos was both a gentleman and a scholar. I would spend countless evenings sitting with him and discussing history, current events, travel and more.
Indeed, I transitioned from good customer to good friend when we discovered our mutual love of trains, and our mutual experience with one train in particular.
It was the Trans-Canada Via Rail, which Angelo worked on as a chef after immigrating to Nova Scotia from the beautiful Greek island of Corfu with his family at age 19.
I took that terrific cross country trip from Vancouver to Toronto in the early 1980s, my first adventure on a classy train with fine dining in beautiful cars. Was Angelo doing the cooking? We don’t know, but I like to think so.
Then a bit later in the 1980s, fate and love would intervene in a way that would bring him to Columbia.
Angelo and Georgia (also a Greek immigrant to Canada) had dated in Halifax back in the 1960s, but life took them in different directions. She ended up in Columbia as a top nurse at Richland Memorial, and when her mother died in the mid-1980s, Georgia returned to Nova Scotia for the funeral.
She and Angelo were both now single, and upon seeing each other again after two decades the magic was back. They went out every day for several weeks, and when Georgia returned home to Columbia, Angelo soon followed. They married and the rest is history, both romantic and culinary.
After humble beginnings in Columbia — he made and sold hot dogs and snacks for bingo night at Cardinal Newman High School — one day Angelo noticed a “For Rent” sign on a building at 2702 Devine St. Though the space was small, he liked the location. In 1988 Angelo would start his own business, reaching for the American dream.
The response to his fine Greek cuisine was fast and furious, with word of mouth spreading quickly. Georgia soon left nursing to join Angelo at the restaurant, with her cakes and cookies becoming legendary additions to the menu.
And people didn’t just want take-out, they wanted to eat it right there. First came a few tables inside, then more on the patio, then the patio was enlarged and enclosed, then more tables were added by the sidewalk.
Devine Foods became not just a wildly successful restaurant, but an important part of the community. You always saw friends and neighbors there. And you often saw the greats and near greats from the worlds of politics, law, business, sports and more. As Keith Stanton, Angelo’s right-hand man for over 20 years, told The State in 2009, “We even had Ric Flair in here, Woo Hoo!”
Indeed, I once had an accidental dinner with Steve Spurrier at Devine Foods when he came in alone one night shortly after arriving in Columbia. The HBC approached me sitting by myself and simply said, “Mind if I join you?” To say the least, I didn’t.
That brings me to my final thought about Devine Foods. Recently my daughter Blythe was visiting and we went for her “last supper” where she had grown up eating. Before leaving, we were talking to Georgia and Angelo, expressing our gratitude for providing the wonderful place so many enjoyed so much for so long.
Georgia teared up, saying: “I knew people liked the restaurant, but I didn’t know they cared so much.” Oh Georgia, you have no idea.
Goodbye to Devine Foods, and to these divine people.
Fisher is president of Fisher Communications, a Columbia advertising and public relations firm. He is active in local issues involving the arts, conservation, business and politics.
