George's Place 35-Year Bash is Saturday

In 35 years, Kirkland has grown from a quiet village of some 17,000 mostly working folk to a digitally paced, affluent city of more than 80,000, but there has been one constant: The friendly diner known as .

A veritable downtown institution best known as a breakfast spot, it served up sincere smiles and honest food when it opened in 1976 on Kirkland Avenue and it still does today.

Now the family that’s been running it all along is inviting its friends old and new to come in on Saturday and celebrate its three and a half decades.

“We’ve just been steadily moving along, having fun, taking care of family and customers, being part of town,” says Pete Mangouras, who is now co-owner of the restaurant his late father George opened first as a pizza joint.

“With our food, service, hospitality -- our environment -- if we get you in the door, we’re pretty sure you’ll come back. Then we get to know your name and become friends.”

The festivities begin at 7 p.m. They’ll include a band and Greek music - George came from the island of Ikaria -- speeches from family members, door prizes and, no doubt, more handshakes, hugs and laughter than anywhere this side of an Athens taverna.

“Saturday is going to be a zoo,” says Mangouras, who owns George’s with his childhood friend Derek MacKenzie. “I’ve been getting texts and calls. The crowd is going to be here. We just think it’s going to be so busy.”

There is little doubt of that, since George’s is one of the most popular breakfast spots in downtown Kirkland. It’s history and evolution are as interesting as its owners. Before it became George’s the site was the location of a doughnut shop, Hole in One, and it was a popular place itself. Well I remember as a teenager watching on weekend mornings as doughnuts bobbed in the hot oil -- not to mention biting into a warm one with chocolate frosting.

Anyway, George Mangouras was a Greek Merchant Marine who landed in Vancouver, B.C., married a Greek woman and had children, then eventually brought the family to Washington state. He first worked here in another popular Kirkland eatery owned by Greeks, Athens Pizza, now , still on Central Way and still run by the same family. There were some hard feelings when George broke off to start his own, similar place.

Over time, George’s found its niche primarily as a breakfast spot, also serving lunch, and eventually dropped pizzas. But it kept the hot oven grinders and its menu continued to be spiced by the owners’ Grecian heritage. Dishes today include such item as “Athina’s Omelet” after Pete’s older sister, who also works at the restaurant, and “Eggs Karkinagri” after George’s home village on the south tip of Ikaria, an island in the Aegean sea.

To this day the Mangouras matriarch Froni makes the baklava and mousaka, from traditional family recipes.

“Nobody is even allowed to talk about making it,” Mangouras says with a grin. “She wants to do it.”

One of the charms of George’s Place is the fact that its always been a family affair. It’s hard not to like a place where mom, dad, brothers, sisters, cousins, nieces and nephews work together.

The welcoming family atmosphere has generated generations of loyal customers. Mangouras still sees on an almost daily basis some of the same faces he saw as a 2-year-old 35 years ago - longtime Kirkland educators and businessmen like Russ McClintick, Myron Richards, Bill Woods and Jim Hart.

“As early as I can remember, I remember them,” he says. “I’d come in to work, they would razz me.”

After George died in 2008, Mangouras and MacKenzie expanded and remodeled the restaurant, adding a bar, happy hour and dinner menu.

But the family focus remains. Four generations of the Mangouras family work at George’s.

“Family is really important,” says Mangouras. “My dad wanted it to be a classic neighborhood diner. That’s what we want to keep.”

You'll be able to witness that Saturday from 7-11 p.m.