06/01/2022
🍳🥔🍔Rest in peace, Nikos Koulakis, eldest child of the late Irini and Tony Koulakis.
Having worked at Cosmos Snack Bar for nearly his entire teenage and adult life (until he and sister Niki sold the famous NDG greasy-spoon resto in the summer of 2020), the affable Nik would greet everyone with a smile.
Most customers weren’t aware but it was actually Nik who invented the legendary Creation Sandwich that is still served up at Cosmos to this very day.
It was always a pleasure, and often a total riot, to film Nik as part of the 2000 doc Man of Grease I made with Mika Goodfriend. Like his dad, Nik loved to ham it up in front of the camera and shoot the breeze when the camera was off.
Today was Nik’s funeral and it was truly sad to bid him farewell, especially at the age of 59. He passed away peacefully at home last week from a chronic respiratory illness.
My deepest sympathies to his siblings Niki and Johnny, his many customers and to the staff of Cosmos on Sherbrooke and Draper who would see him regularly over the past couple of years when he’d drop in.
We’ll all miss you, Nikos.
-Ez
Ezra Soiferman
Director, Man of Grease
http://www.manofgrease.com
(The attached photo was taken just before Nik’s retirement in July, 2020. The framed photo within the photo, of Tony Koulakis, was one I shot circa 1999.)
