Angelo Chantilis, the Burger House co-owner and longtime Park Cities resident who was “everybody’s best friend,” said one of his daughters, died on Nov. 7. Chantilis was 95.
Chantilis was the face of the Dallas-based Burger House for nearly 50 years. The original Burger House near Southern Methodist University was initially owned by Prometheus “Jack” Koustoubardis, starting in 1951. Chantilis took his kids for burgers at the Snider Plaza shop for years, speaking Greek to Koustoubardis each time he’d stop in.
Eventually, Chantilis and Steve Canellos, his best friend, bought the restaurant in 1982.
Chantilis and Canellos already had a background in restaurants as the owners of a diner called Googie’s in Dallas. They were “serious” about Burger House, Chantilis’ kids recall.
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“Red alert!” employees would say when Chantilis would pull up to the restaurant unannounced, driving the Lincoln Continental or Cadillac he loved to cruise around in and singing to the radio. His son, Angelo “Sonny” Chantilis Jr., said employees would jump up to impress their hands-on owner.
The original Burger House opened on Hillcrest Avenue in University Park in 1951. Angelo Chantilis became involved in 1982.
Sarah Blaskovich/Staff
Despite an eye for details, the elder Chantilis was a warm and generous boss, his family members said. The company remains a supporter of Highland Park High School.
And Chantilis was a friendly neighbor, spending afternoons over a cup of coffee at Kuby’s. He spent his mornings drinking coffee, and he loved comparing new coffee beans and grinders.
“He and his business partner, they’d sit at Kuby’s in a booth,” said his daughter Connie Chantilis. “When I went to SMU, I’d know where to find him in the afternoons.”
Chantilis was quick to fix anything in the restaurant that needed an improvement. He also loved working the window, so he could meet customers and learn their favorite dishes.
“He was really proud of the place,” said Sonny Chantilis, who has been involved in the family business for much of his life. The Chantilis and Canellos families are still involved in the original Burger House in University Park, another on E. Mockingbird Lane and a third on Marsh Lane in the Addison area.
Angelo Chantilis, who co-owned Burger House in Dallas and University Park since 1982, is pictured here celebrating his 91st birthday at Toulouse, one of his favorite Dallas restaurants.
Chantilis family files
Chantilis often wore a Burger House T-shirt around Dallas. And if he didn’t, his son said, “he definitely was telling you he was ‘Angelo from Burger House’ — from Aspen, Colo., to Athens, Greece.”
Before Chantilis moved to Dallas, he was raised in a Greek family in Chicago. He served as a firefighter in the Korean War.
Though Chantilis was a runner and a healthy eater for much of his life, he made time for his three favorite things: burgers, steaks and coffee. The burgers, of course, came from the shop he was so proud to co-own. His order was a hamburger — no cheese — with onions, tomatoes, jalapeños and hot sauce.
On June 18, 1960, Angelo Chantilis married Zoe Carras at the Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas.
Chantilis family files
Angelo Chantilis and his wife Zoe Carras Chantilis loved to travel.
Chantilis family files
Chantilis learned to ski at age 50, and family vacations to the mountains remain core memories for the family. He and his wife, Zoe, loved Santa Fe.
Married since 1960, the two were “inseparable,” said his daughter Rosanne Chantilis Beck.
“My mom would be dressed up in all her Santa Fe gear. He’d be wearing a western belt and a Burger House shirt. They were just a sight,” Beck said.
Chantilis was easy to talk to. “He was everybody’s best friend,” Connie Chantilis said. “He wrote his own rules, he did his own deal and he had a ball being Angelo Chantilis.”
He was also the president of his Greek Orthodox Church and a dancer.
On Oct. 18, Chantilis walked down the aisle at his granddaughter Madeleine Elder’s Greek Orthodox wedding. It was one of his last big family get-togethers, organized so Chantilis and his wife of 65 years could experience their granddaughter’s big day in Dallas. The ceremony was in the afternoon.
“He got to wake up slow that day, get his coffee and get situated,” Elder said of her grandfather, whom she called “Papau.”
“He’s my favorite person in our family,” Elder said, “and I know I was one of his.”
After the wedding, Chantilis was surrounded by family until his death a few weeks later.
His children like to think that their dad and his best friend, Canellos — who died several years ago — are back together again.
“Wherever they are, they’re breaking rules somewhere,” Sonny Chantilis recalled Canellos’ son, Chris Canellos, saying.
That got a good chuckle out of the Chantilis siblings. “They had a hell of a lot of fun,“ Sonny Chantilis said.
Angelo Chantilis is survived by his wife, Zoe Carras Chantilis; his children, Connie Chantilis, Roseanne Chantilis Beck and Angelo “Sonny” Chantelis Jr.; as well as several grandchildren and other family members.
A Trisagion service will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 13555 Hillcrest Ave., in Dallas.
The funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church Hellenic Dancers or the Wounded Warrior Project.