The Barrel celebrates 38 years in Simcoe

Adam Tafferner prepares a pizza takeout order at The Barrel in Simcoe.

By Chris Abbott

Editor

“When it’s fresh, it’s fresh,” says Nick Kokkoros, General Manager and Partner at The Barrel restaurant in Simcoe, which features authentic pizza, pasta and traditional Italian dishes.

The concept for The Barrel started in the mid-70s, said Kokkoros, when two brothers – George and Tom Daikos - came to Canada and opened their first Barrel Pizza and Spaghetti House. The business grew, but in the mid-80s they were looking for something outside of the Toronto area. A quieter lifestyle, similar to their roots in Greece.

“A real estate agent said, ‘Why don’t you look into Simcoe?’” said Kokkoros, Tom’s son-in-law. “They came here to settle down to a nice rural community where they thought they could build roots, raise their young kids.”

The second generation, led by Kokkoros and brother-in-law Nick Zographos, is building on the same concept, adding some tweaks and modernizing it.

Today’s menu includes many original recipes. The casual Italian restaurant specializes in gourmet pizza and pasta, but so much has been added over the years. It includes seafood, oven-baked specialties, chicken and veal, sandwiches, soups and salads, and more.

“It’s evolved. It’s more of a sit-down, dine-in, whereas the original concept was more takeout and delivery. The wine menu has been expanded to include some local wines, local beers. We’ve added Thai Chicken, we’ve added Stuffed Chicken Marsala… So we’ve tweaked the menu, expanded it to give more options to the customers, but the main concept - the staples - are still there.”

They still make homemade sauces, and they still come in every morning to make everything from scratch.

“That’s kind of been our signature, and we’ve kept that. It’s very hard to continue that, but we’ve kept that concept, that we’re going to make it in-house, that we’re going to come here in the morning, make our sauces from scratch.”

The olive oil comes from a family farm in Greece, which they also sell in small quantities at the restaurant, along with in-house made sauces and salad dressing, also in fresh, small quantities.

As an independent, they have flexibility to source locally whenever they can.

“I can buy local asparagus… tomatoes, potatoes. I have the freedom to that. That’s also our signature.”

Kokkoros is proud of the entire staff for helping to enable their restaurant vision.

“We work together with them, and we’re owner-operators. We’re actually here. Either one of us (Kokkoros or Zographos) is always here, so we can deal with an issue and make a decision right away.”

Because they grew up in the community, and the community has been good to them, The Barrel tries to support ‘anything local’ in arts, sports (especially youth connected), organizations, church groups, and events.

“We’re here, we’re in this community and we want to support this community.”

Over the years, they have served three generations of customers.

“It’s a lot of years,” Kokkoros smiled. “We have people who say ‘I came here as a kid, now I’m bringing my kid’ or ‘I used to work here as a high schooler and now I have a high schooler wanting to work for you here.’

“Nick (Zographos) and I, we’re totally invested in it. We just have that work ethic – we grew up in the industry. It’s just ingrained in us to be here, and luckily we’ve had great staff to help.”

Technology has transformed the restaurant, and they actively engage on social media, but they still offer personalized services like phone takeout orders and deliveries.

“We can accommodate an order to cater anywhere in Norfolk. We’re the only ones that deliver anywhere within a 30-minute radius. We’ll deliver to Port Dover, Waterford, Delhi, and we’ve always done that. A lot of people don’t realize that. We want to serve our customer base and our customer base is not just Simcoe.”

The Barrel (barrelrestaurant.ca) is located at 131 Queensway West, Simcoe. Follow them on Facebook, Instagram and X. They can also be reached at 519-426-0068 or email info@barrelrestaurant.ca.