Ari Tsonis has not changed the recipe for 30 years. The owner of Minerva Pizza House in Providence’s Wayland Square, Tsonis said consistency is one of the reasons his customers keep coming back.
On a typical Saturday night Tsonis emerges several times from the counter where he prepares the food to greet most of the customers by name. He asks about their well-being, and how things have been since the last time they had seen each other, which is usually a week prior.
“I like to work with the public,” he said, smiling.
“When I told my father I wanted to start my own business he said, ‘if you want to be the boss, you have to work like a horse,'” he said rhyming boss and horse.
Moving from Volos, Greece in 1969, Tsonis has been true to his father’s words, putting in 85-hour work weeks since Minerva opened in November 1973.
Marilyn Stekouras met Tsonis when he first moved to town. Of Greek descent and born in Providence, she said her family encouraged her to visit the new boy who had just opened up the pizza place down the street. Two years later they were married.”I married him because he was a good cook,” she joked.
They have two children, a daughter who is a student at a local college and a son who lives in New York.
Marilyn arrives at Minerva around 3 o’clock each day after teaching ESL reading at Central High School. But she doesn’t consider the second part of her day work.
“This is not really a job for me,” she said. “It’s my life.”
Marilyn said the relationship the couple has with their customers is what pleases her most about the business.
“I think the most important thing for us is that we’ve made so many friendships,” she said. “We’ve watched people grow up and then bring their kids to Minerva.”
In the 1980s the couple opened up a few other Minerva Pizza Houses in Rhode Island with a partner they had at the time. After their six-day workweek, Ari and Marilyn and their six employees take Sundays off. One of the reasons they sold the satellite shops in East Providence, Seekonk and Lincoln, was that they took up too much of the Tsonis’ time. Unable to pay as much attention to the South Angell Street location as they wanted, the couple sold the other Minerva stores after about two years. Marilyn said selling the businesses helped them buy the Wayland Square building where their business is located.
“Sundays are our days,” she said, talking about how during what little downtime there is on Saturday nights, Ari always prepares their big Sunday meal.
Alan Gaffin, a customer from day one, used to be in the restroom equipment business and helped Ari fix up the place when he started. Gaffin likes to joke that he put Minerva in business. He said there is something really special about Ari and Marilyn’s relationship.
“When his wife is here he just beams,” said Gaffin.
Although Ari likes to joke that the name Minerva comes from an old girlfriend by the same name who broke his heart, he says it is really based on the Latin Goddess of Wisdom. And one of his brothers in Greece had a coffee shop by the same name, so Minerva serves as an American tribute to him as well.
When asked about the Subway sandwich shop that moved in across the street a few years ago, Marilyn said she is not concerned about the competition.
“Business helps business,” she said.
And business is good. Reference USA, an online business database estimates that the shop makes $500,000 to $1 million a year in sales. Ari estimates he makes about 40 pizzas and about 40 sandwiches on a busy day. That’s more than 11,000 of each every year.
And Marilyn and Ari love the food so much they eat about four pizzas each week.
“As Greeks we eat a lot of Greek food,” said Marilyn.