George's Restaurant: Four Decades and Counting

George and Nancy Chiotis opened George's Restaurant in June 1970. Some customers, like Vivian Buchtler and Dale Schultz, remember the day. 

Buchtler, 88, says she was the third customer at the restaurant. "I'm one of the bunch. I'm a chair," she jokes. 

George's Restaurant is a hangout to Buchtler, who has lived in Montgomery her entire life. 

The restaurant is a downtown staple. The same group of retired locals gathers at the counter every morning. And the same friends congregate at the booths and tables to discuss whatever they neglected to mention the day before or the day before that. 

It was my first time walking in to the clean, bright restaurant. After visiting with the folks at the restaurant, sitting in a homey booth and eating the best buckwheat pancakes I've ever had, it was easy to understand how everyone is a regular at George's Restaurant.

"It's a ma and pa kind of place," explains Louie Chiotis, son of George and Nancy. Chiotis, 32, helps run the restaurant with his dad. After taking some business courses in college, Chiotis decided he wanted to gear up to be the second generation to run the family business.

"It's like family here. Everybody knows each other," he said of the restaurant.

Chiotis, of Oswego, talked about how the restaurant has expanded over the years into some of the adjacent buildings. The largest expansion was in the 1990s when they nearly doubled in size. 

Chiotis' parents emmigrated from Greece. When they found the opportunity to start up their own business on the corner of Webster and River streets, they took it. Chiotis said his dad knows how to run a successful restaurant. That, along with good employees, accounts for its longevity, he said. 

The regulars sprinkled around the restaurant early on Friday morning said its the good food at good prices, and the social aspect that brings them back day after day.

Sue Chapman, of Sandwich, is a waitress at George's. She knows everyone who walks in the door by name, including another George who is in his mid-90s. Chapman has worked at the restaurant since she was 18 years old.

She pointed out the regulars at every table and directed me to Buchtler, who was table hopping at about 8 a.m. An energetic Buchtler told me that she knows just about everybody. She was born in a house behind Leonardi's Furniture and didn't stray far. 

"I'd be lost if I didn't come here," she said. "I come for three meals a day."

She was doing a lot of joking, but I think she might have been serious. I know that I can't wait to get back to George's for another stack of buckwheat pancakes.

is located at 110 Webster St. in downtown Montgomery. The diner style menu has something for everyone from breakfast skillets, to corned beef or wraps for lunch, to the "best hamburgers in town" for dinner.