Surrounded by friends, family, customers, and coworkers, the Roumanes family held a celebration of 50 years of business for Mr. Prime Rib on Oct. 12.
The restaurant first opened its doors on Jan. 26, 1967, under the name U & I Restaurant, and the story of the establishment's inception is one of passion, commitment and taking a giant leap of faith.
In 1956, George Roumanes and not-yet wife Helen made the brave decision, like many immigrants, to try to make a better life for themselves and their families and moved from the small village, Metamorphosis, in southern Greece, to Sudbury.
With just one suitcase and less than $50 in their pockets, they made their way to Canada. George arrived in Sudbury and started work the next day. His first jobs were at Gus’s lunch on Elm street and Steven’s confectionary earning $10 a week.
In 1957, he started working at Gus’s on Notre Dame. In 1959, George started working at White Rose food bar opened by Helen’s brother, Nick Lagges. It was also during this time that the business partnership between George Roumanes and Petros Iltsopoulos began to develop.
In 1961, their first business venture started with U & I refreshments, which was a catering food truck that went to construction sites, service stations and garages, delivering coffee, meat pies, sandwiches, hotdogs, pop, etc.
For a few months, until they were able to get their feet off the ground, they prepared all food for the trucks in the White Rose kitchen. From there, they moved to a little two-door garage on Notre Dame and built a small kitchen where prep was done and trucks loaded.
In between all the hard work there was still time for love and in 1962, George and Helen were married and started their family soon after (with Sam, Joann, and Zoe).
In 1963, Laurentian University started being built, and with the increased number of workers needing to be nourished, George and Petro were up for the challenge and expanded their business from one truck to four to better service the whole Sudbury area.
This passion for food and service continued and led to the opening of U & I Restaurant, a family-type restaurant, on Jan. 26, 1967 at 777 Barrydowne Rd. where it still stands today.
It started with 60 seats with a counter, a pizza take out area, and the food trucks that were loaded daily at the back of the restaurant, but by the end of the year the food trucks were phased out.
The restaurant opened seven days a week , from 6 a.m. – 2 a.m. with George and Helen, Petro and Maria working around the clock.
While George is still heavily involved in the day-to-day operation, his son Sam is starting to take the reigns and is following in the footsteps of his father with his dedication to the family business.
"I remember when they were starting out, people were beyond committed to the business, they were working 14, 15 hours a day," said Sam Roumanes.
"You can't just be half in when you're starting a business, you have to be all the way in and that's how my parents were. It was rare that we were ever all together as a family when I was growing up, either mom or dad or both were always at the restaurant."
Helen and Maria supported and worked by their husbands’ sides from the beginning, forgoing pay in those early days until all the bills and mortgage were covered.
With the success of the U & I over the years and times changing, it was felt there was need for a change and in the early 1980’s, U & I was renovated into a finer dining establishment and renamed Mr. Prime Rib.
This change and adaptation is something that Sam has also carried with him from his father as he looks toward the future of Mr. Prime Rib.
"You look around and there's always new chains popping up, there's always more and more competition," said Sam.
"There's kind of a melding of both evolving and staying current, but remembering what got you what you where you are and maintaining that."
Over the 50 years Mr. Prime Rib has had and continue to have many dedicated and loyal employees and currently have a staff of around 35 people.
Many staffers have been with the company for at least 10 years, with some having more than 30 years at Mr. Prime Rib.
"We've got students that started out with us working part time to pay for school who have stuck around and been here for seven or eight years," said Roumanes.
Sam says he is proud to be part of the community and that Mr. Prime Rib has seen generational changes but continues to be a popular spot.
"You're seeing people who grew up eating here in the early days and now they're bringing in their children," said Roumanes.
"We're extremely proud to be part of this community and we just want to thank everyone who has welcomed and supported us for the past 50 years and we hope to continue to have that support in the years to come."
