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A kitchen renovation to their family home allows Deno and Tina Poulous to have plenty of kefi (“good time”) with their friends and family.
Bob Sowder
Deno and Tina Poulos’ kitchen is full of wonderful stories of their Greek upbringing, how they met and, of course, cooking.
Deno’s father James founded the Charcoal Steak House in 1956. After selling it, the family started DJ’s Brasserie in Tanglewood.
“Growing up in the restaurant business was hard,” Deno says. “I didn’t get to see my parents much. The lack of attention meant I’d get into mischief so dad would come home.” But when he was 12, Deno started working in the restaurant alongside the rest of the family.
“Even though my parents owned the restaurant,” says Deno, also an accomplished bouzouki player, “I was the low man on the totem pole and had to learn from the bottom up.”
Tina’s parents both emigrated from Greece to Ontario, Canada before she was born. A blue collar family, Tina’s mother worked as a nursing assistant and her father a painter in the hospital.
“He was called the singing painter,” Tina says.
Grown, and a registered nurse, she accepted a transfer with her company from Ontario to Roanoke. After just a short amount of time, lonely and convinced Roanoke had nothing to offer, Tina told her father she wanted to move home. So, he came for a visit to convince her to give the move a chance. While driving around he spied the sign for the Kefi Lounge. Kefi is Greek for “good time.”
“See,” he says. “We have people here. Find a church and meet them.” That is what led her to Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on Huntington Boulevard—and Deno. They have been married for 18 years.
“Our backgrounds are so similar,” says Tina, “with our moms and grandmothers both cooking in the kitchen. All our traditions are similar, too.”
In the late 1970s, Deno helped his father build a new home south of town. A place for his parents to retire and a true gathering place for family, the home holds many memories. When James passed away, they had trouble selling it. After much time and effort, Deno and Tina decided to move into this family home and sell their own. Their own house sold in just two days.
“It was Providence,” Tina says. “Obviously, God wanted us in this house.”
A kitchen upgrade topped their list of improvements. Originally, the home had a galley kitchen with a breakfast nook. Through a French door was a formal dining room. They wanted to open it up, make it big enough for both of them to cook and host family gatherings. They wanted a big fat Greek kitchen.
Bob Sowder
Fulfilling this dream involved knocking down walls. They built an island big enough for both to work at the same time, complete with a vegetable washing sink and custom slide-outs. They included another island/bar combination they already owned to serve as an additional workspace or a place for grandkids to eat.
The French door that led to the dining room became a pantry door with frosted panes. It hangs from a barn door track. Other things were upcycled in their kitchen, too. Vintage drawer pulls with seeds, beans and herbs encased in resin, found in Deno’s late brother’s things, are put to use on the new cabinets. Mosaic roosters, made by Deno’s mother, hang on the walls. His grandmother’s copper serving set, from her kitchen in Greece, sits ready to use on the baker’s rack. They moved a crystal chandelier to the living room. And rather than cover the old telephone landline connection in the wall, they purchased a vintage-looking telephone to complement the nostalgic feel.
Chefs at heart, the Pouloses wanted what they were accustomed to in their restaurants—gas and convection. Their new stainless stove has a griddle between the four burners of the cooktop and two ovens. They also have a separate halogen/convection oven. Halogen ovens are known to be more energy-efficient than conventional ovens because a halogen lamp inside reduces the cooking time.
Cabinetry with TLC created custom cabinets to fit Tina’s specifications.
“Terri [Langford] took my ideas,” says Tina, “and created exactly what I wanted, in the time frame I wanted.”
Special slideouts for pans and spices, as well as lazy Susans in the corners and all the drawers a cook could want, are in this amazing space. Livingstone solid surface counters in a desert sand color cover the counters. The floor is a marble-look porcelain with tan grout that complements the marble floor in their foyer. They kept the window seat that was in the original breakfast nook but dressed it up with seat cushions and herbs in hanging pots.
Bob Sowder
“We use the herbs in our cooking,” says Tina.
Subway tiles, a mural behind the stove and copper-colored plumbing fixtures round out the Old Country feel.
Tina added a coffee station next to the refrigerator so that she and Deno would always be ready to welcome guests. And that is exactly what you get, a big fat welcome in their big fat Greek kitchen.
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