One thing that George noticed on his visit was that there weren’t any pizza restaurants, and that pizza was almost unheard of in the area, so he quickly realized he could open a restaurant, with their perfected pizza sauce and try to make a living selling pizzas. The search began for the perfect pizza place and the journey had George going as far as Glace Bay and Sydney looking for a spot for his restaurant. Then one day while he was on Foord Street in Stellarton the search ended, and George and his brother purchased a building and opened the first pizza restaurant in Pictou County. At first this epic pizza joint was called `Sands` (spelled SANNS) because of George’s love of the water and the beach, that was literally just minutes away. The name only lasted a month or so after George and his brother were informed the name had been registered by someone else in Nova Scotia. However, this was only a minor setback as George and his brother quickly replaced the Saans name with Sam`s in honor of their father, whose name was Spyro, but in Canada this name became anglicized as Sam – so it fit perfect for this pizza place and the rest as they say is history.
So where did this brown sauce pizza originate, well it all started in Greece in 1938, the year that George Kouyas was born, he was the youngest of seven siblings (five brothers and two sisters). George grew up in a small, Peloponnesian village on a mountain in Glastra, Greece. Growing up he witnessed the German invasion and occupation of Greece to assist its ally, Fascist Italy, which had been at war with Greece. George’s father was absent for much of the time due to accusations of being communist and incarceration, George soon realized that there was no future for him in his struggling homeland of Greece and at the age of just 13 years old, he and his brother ventured to Brazil and opened their own clothing store. It was there that George had developed his passion for business and stayed in Brazil for nine and half years, until he returned to Greece and joined the army, and served for two years which is mandatory for young men of his home country to maintain their citizenship. After George finished his compulsory duty, he travelled to England for three years, but returned to Greece. Unfortunately, Greece still showed no promise for George, so he then decided to travel across the pond to Canada where he worked for several different restaurants in the Montreal area.
George has always been a hard worker and has earned his way in the restaurant business from the ground up. Starting as a dishwasher and working his way up eventually to manager. Always an entrepreneur at heart, George was eager to learn everything he needed to know so that he could one day run a restaurant of his own. It was during this period of transition that George and his brother had been experiment- ing making pizza sauce for various employers. After tweaking their recipe over the years, they realized they had something that tasted amazing and truly original. As we mentioned before George’s goal was to always have a restaurant of his own and now he had a secret sauce to make that happen. While George was working in Montreal, he came across a Greek man who was visiting from Pictou County, Nova Scotia. They got to chatting and George asked him if there was an ocean near by…the man of course said “yes, I actually have a cottage on the beach.” George continued to question the man and the conversation ended with George along with his brother coming to the East Coast with him to see this place near the ocean in Pictou County, and they really liked what they saw.
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MARCH 2021 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • MARCH 2021
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