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A few nights ago, at a comfortable modern house not far from Zakaki, set amid citrus groves and gardens, two men met for the first time, both of whom I admire greatly. Both built businesses from very little – one an icon of the restaurant trade in Cyprus, the other a figure of achievement and success in the wines of France, in particular Burgundy. The occasion was a private dinner given by the Antoniou family, owners of the Neon Phaliron restaurant to welcome French wine producer-negociant Michel Picard and his wife Lilliane on their annual pleasure and business visit to Cyprus. Their stories are very different, but with certain great characteristics in common: an ability to overcome adversity and to attain success without sacrificing integrity.
In 1951, Louis Félix Picard established himself as a “Vigenron” in Chagny, a large village in the heart of Burgundy, with two hectares of vineyards. At the start he worked these alone but after a very few years he asked his son to leave school at the age of 15 to come and help him. It was the start of an amazing career. Michel had more than a talent for growing grapes and making wine. He could sell it, too.
At the start he took the family’s samples around the neighbouring villages and towns on a motor cycle. His personality and enthusiasm together with the quality of the wines secured encouraging sales. The cycle of success had started – more vineyards, more sales; acquisition and organic growth. Local markets secured, over the next decades Picard’s labels graced the table of regional and then national wine stores and the tables of restaurants and consumers. It is a saga of marvellous achievement.
Today, Michel Picard is a name to be reckoned with in the major wine markets of the world; he is master of the Château de Chassagne Montrachet, a producer of some outstanding Burgundies and (for the second term) Mayor of Chagny, population 6,000. Despite his renown, he is a remarkably modest and unassuming man, whose enthusiasm for wine, food and social contact is unbounded. When asked if he would make the first presentation of a Cyprus Gourmet “2 Chef” Award for Excellence to Haris and Antonis Antoniou of the Neon Phaliron, he was only too delighted. As my picture shows it was a happy moment.
As a young man in Famagusta, Loizos Antoniou learned catering “hands-on” in local restaurants and was set for a career there, but the 1974 Turkish invasion changed all that. He and his family found themselves refugees, living in a small dwelling in Zakaki.
A few years spent working for others fired in him the desire to be his own boss, and this plus family savings eventually enabled him to open his own place in the early 1980s. He and his wife Kiveli did everything from buying the food to cooking and serving it and washing the dishes at the end of the day.
The restaurant was, and is, the Neon Phaliron, which became one of the most popular eating places in Limassol, with both Cypriots and foreigners. Loizos’ sons grew up virtually in the business, and took degrees at hotel and catering college in Switzerland. What good fortune it was that one (Haris) wanted to be a chef, and the other (Antonis) was a food and beverage management devotee. And this is their division of duties today. Loizos still pops in most days, but spends more time at home, tending the citrus, the vegetable plots and the gardens around the family property. At the party he manned the barbecue.
“46 years I’ve cooked”, he said, obviously still enjoying it. He marvels at the restaurant he started, which has expanded its horizons of culinary art and service, whilst retaining its friendly family ambience. “Imagine”, he remarked, “34 people they have now – I remember when it was just me and Kiveli”.
Our Awards are for the quality and value of the food and drink, for the service and the ambience – the Neon Phaliron’s “2 Chef” Award for Excellence reflects these. But it also recognises more than 20 years of serving the community and the maintaining of standards and a family tradition.
A fitting evening indeed, when the Picards met the Antonious.
