John Papas Puts His Cafe On The Market

There were few storms that John Papas couldn’t steer his eponymous cafe through. Through two recessions, two divorces, a fire and now a pandemic have not flagged the business.

But a bout with COVID-19 that nearly took his life has proven the straw that broke the 69-year-old stalwart’s resolve, Mr. Papas said this week, after listing his venerable cafe for sale.

“I gave it a lot of thought and said I think it’s time for me to give it up, let somebody younger come in and do a better job,” Mr. Papas said on Monday. “I wish I was a little younger. I’ll be 70 in December and after COVID, two weeks in the ICU, I just don’t think I can handle the stress anymore. It needs a little younger blood in here.”

The restaurant business is on the market for $1.3 million and Mr. Papas said he hopes that “a real restaurant guy” will come and take it over with the same verve he has put into the business for the last 29 years.

Mr. Papas’ restaurant career on the South Fork started in Amagansett, at Estia, the cafe he opened with a cousin, Eva Rozos, in 1982.

Ms. Rozos, 74, is still beside him at John Papas Cafe, from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. on most days.

Mr. Papas had been a graphic artist in his native Greece before moving to the United States in the 1970s and East Hampton in 1979. His poor grasp of the English language at the time made graphics jobs hard to come by, but he knew how to cook and restaurant kitchen jobs weren’t as inhibited by language barriers.

“I was not a chef, I was a cook,” he recalled. “It was not in my blood but I gave it all I had. It worked very well, actually.”

In 1992, Mr. Papas moved the family operation to East Hampton Village and the current location, which he purchased from the Lupo family, his neighbors from Astro Pizza and Felice’s Ristorante on Amagansett Main Street — who, coincidentally, sold their restaurant this summer and will be closing for good just a week after their 50th anniversary in business.

Over the years he and Ms. Rozos expanded the offerings, bringing in a “real chef” to help him with the more involved preparations needed for a proper dinner menu.

Only just listed, Mr. Papas said he does not expect to be hanging up his apron any too soon. But he expects a buyer to come calling. The rent is reasonable and the landlord is nice, he said, and the business model is a proven success.

But he also told his children not to follow him into the restaurant business.

“They are both very, very smart, and I told them ‘You have choices, your dad didn’t have a choice,’” he said. “You are not going to have a life if you want to keep the restaurant running the way it needs to be. I did very well, but I want them to have a life other than the restaurant.”

With his kids still in college and graduate school and home on the South Fork, Mr. Papas says he will remain in the area to an extent, but he has also purchased a home near the water in Greece that he says is looking like a good place to retire.

“But I love it here at Christmas time — you can’t celebrate Christmas when it’s 90 degrees,” he said. “So I will have two countries now.”