Eventually, Chantilis and Steve Canellos, his best friend, bought the restaurant in 1982.<\/p>\n
Chantilis and Canellos already had a background in restaurants as the owners of a diner called Googie\u2019s in Dallas. They were \u201cserious\u201d about Burger House, Chantilis\u2019 kids recall. <\/p>\n
Restaurant News<\/p>\n
By signing up, you agree to our\u00a0Terms of Service<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cRed alert!\u201d 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 \u201cSonny\u201d Chantilis Jr., said employees would jump up to impress their hands-on owner.<\/p>\n The original Burger House opened on Hillcrest Avenue in University Park in 1951. Angelo Chantilis became involved in 1982.<\/p>\n Sarah Blaskovich\/Staff<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n And Chantilis was a friendly neighbor, spending afternoons over a cup of coffee at Kuby\u2019s. He spent his mornings drinking coffee, and he loved comparing new coffee beans and grinders.<\/p>\n \u201cHe and his business partner, they\u2019d sit at Kuby\u2019s in a booth,\u201d said his daughter Connie Chantilis. \u201cWhen I went to SMU, I\u2019d know where to find him in the afternoons.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was really proud of the place,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Chantilis family files<\/p>\n Chantilis often wore a Burger House T-shirt around Dallas. And if he didn\u2019t, his son said, \u201che definitely was telling you he was \u2018Angelo from Burger House\u2019 \u2014 from Aspen, Colo., to Athens, Greece.”<\/p>\n Before Chantilis moved to Dallas, he was raised in a Greek family in Chicago. He served as a firefighter in the Korean War. <\/p>\n 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 \u2014 no cheese \u2014 with onions, tomatoes, jalape\u00f1os and hot sauce. <\/p>\n On June 18, 1960, Angelo Chantilis married Zoe Carras at the Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas.<\/p>\n Chantilis family files<\/p>\n Angelo Chantilis and his wife Zoe Carras Chantilis loved to travel.<\/p>\n Chantilis family files<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Married since 1960, the two were \u201cinseparable,\u201d said his daughter Rosanne Chantilis Beck.<\/p>\n \u201cMy mom would be dressed up in all her Santa Fe gear. He\u2019d be wearing a western belt and a Burger House shirt. They were just a sight,\u201d Beck said. <\/p>\n Chantilis was easy to talk to. \u201cHe was everybody\u2019s best friend,\u201d Connie Chantilis said. \u201cHe wrote his own rules, he did his own deal and he had a ball being Angelo Chantilis.\u201d<\/p>\n He was also the president of his Greek Orthodox Church and a dancer.<\/p>\n On Oct. 18, Chantilis walked down the aisle at his granddaughter Madeleine Elder\u2019s 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\u2019s big day in Dallas. The ceremony was in the afternoon.<\/p>\n \u201cHe got to wake up slow that day, get his coffee and get situated,\u201d Elder said of her grandfather, whom she called \u201cPapau.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s my favorite person in our family,\u201d Elder said, \u201cand I know I was one of his.\u201d<\/p>\n After the wedding, Chantilis was surrounded by family until his death a few weeks later. <\/p>\n His children like to think that their dad and his best friend, Canellos \u2014 who died several years ago \u2014 are back together again.<\/p>\n \u201cWherever they are, they\u2019re breaking rules somewhere,\u201d Sonny Chantilis recalled Canellos\u2019 son, Chris Canellos, saying. <\/p>\n That got a good chuckle out of the Chantilis siblings. \u201cThey had a hell of a lot of fun,\u201c Sonny Chantilis said.<\/p>\n Angelo Chantilis is survived by his wife, Zoe Carras Chantilis; his children, Connie Chantilis, Roseanne Chantilis Beck and Angelo \u201cSonny\u201d Chantelis Jr.; as well as several grandchildren and other family members.<\/p>\n A Trisagion service will take place at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 13555 Hillcrest Ave., in Dallas. <\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angelo Chantilis, the Burger House co-owner and longtime Park Cities resident who was \u201ceverybody\u2019s best friend,\u201d said one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1805,102,324,104,103,5254,6946,1623,354,5469],"class_list":["post-44003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-burgers","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-fortworth","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-historic-restaurants","tag-obituaries","tag-restaurant-news","tag-restaurants","tag-university-park"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/VUF4GMUTENFFTEYZYQO4MOM7FY.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Angelo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/R4AUXJKPQZH5DEO63LWUKMVI6Q.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"On](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/T4HBK533Z5AT7I42BUOTP5QQPU.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Angelo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/SEKBF6PJSRFUDHCZGQPS2TKHME.jpg\")
<\/p>\n