LEGENDARY DINER COSMOS SOLD
Run by Koulakis family since 1967
And just like that, the Koulakis family has left the building.
More than five decades after Tony Koulakis started up Cosmos, which became arguably Montreal’s most famous greasy spoon, the family has sold the business. On Friday afternoon, his children — Nikos and Niki Koulakis — signed the papers to sell the legendary Notre-dame-de-grâce diner to David Minicucci, a 29-year-old Montrealer who runs an aluminum-finishing business on the South Shore.
Minicucci is paying exactly what they asked for when they put the tiny cubbyhole of a restaurant for sale in May — $75,000 for the restaurant and another $50,000 for the name. He admits many of his friends and his parents thought he was crazy to embark on this adventure.
“It’s a passion for me,” said Minicucci. “I really believe in this place. It’s almost got a cult following. People come in and they’re just genuinely happy when they walk in the front door.
“People come for that feeling and I think it’s going to work. I don’t have anything more profound to say. I’ve just always loved the place.”
Cosmos was founded in 1967 by Koulakis and over the years it developed a loyal following, with its cosy atmosphere and artery-hardening fare pulling in everyone from high-rent lawyers to low-life criminals to hardcore punks and truck drivers.
It has always been a cramped space where everyone chats at the same time as they gobble up generous portions of eggs and hash browns. There are eight stools at the counter and a couple of tables outside near the sidewalk on Sherbrooke St. At lunchtime Friday, business was booming. Both Nikos and Niki were there.
Nikos has been frying up the trademark eggs, potatoes, bacon, sausage and burgers for decades. His last shift was Wednesday.
Niki was in the midst of her final shift as a waitress Friday, and it took some work to convince her to take a break from dishing out omelettes and burgers — and chatting with longtime customers — to talk about how it feels to be leaving after all these years.
“It’s bittersweet. I feel like I’m leaving my family behind. But it will be nice to get a break,” she said, then turned to her brother. “Nik, how do you feel?”
“I feel freedom,” Nikos said. “It was just time.”
He said he’s not sure what he’ll be filling his days with. “I’m going to try to find something to do. If not, I guess I’ll be doing nothing.”
Asked to explain how Cosmos has outlasted almost every other eatery in Montreal, Nikos provided a simple explanation: “The secret of the success is the potatoes. The potatoes gotta be good.”
For his sister, though, it’s not so much about the food.
“Even though we’re in the computer age, with the internet, I think people still like to look at each other in the face and talk to each other,” Niki said.
“I think there’s a need for that to go on.”
Niki’s plans include hip-replacement surgery after years on her feet at the diner.
“I know what caused it: wear and tear,” Niki said. “Standing 13 hours a day.”
She said she’ll miss “the people, the colourful people we get. Even with COVID -19. We go through it together. We talk about it. Or when my father passed away, I had people supporting me, telling me their stories. We’re not alone.”
(A third sibling, John Koulakis, killed his father in a tragedy that made headlines in 2013. He ended up pleading guilty to manslaughter.)
New owner Minicucci understands there’s something unique about the social scene at Cosmos, which is why he doesn’t have any plans to tamper with the magic formula.
“The food’s amazing but people definitely come for that Cosmos atmosphere,” Minicucci said.
Even with the restaurant milieu reeling from the pandemic, he says he’s optimistic.
“They’ve been doing it since the ’60s and they weren’t doing this to lose money every year. There’s money to be made,” Minicucci said, though he admitted that’s based more on trust than on poring over the numbers.
“They don’t have a ton of paperwork,” he said.
“A lot of it was based on goodwill and just knowing the establishment myself.
“They had to trust that I wasn’t going to do anything crazy with it and respect what they built. And at the same time that I could trust that what they’re telling me is what it is. It’s really based on faith.”
It’s almost got a cult following. People come in and they’re just genuinely happy when they walk in the front door.