Restaurant’s Gift for Holiday: A Free Meal

Jimmy Kypreos plans to stuff about 1,000 people with turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes and gravy today.

Kypreos, a 46-year-old restaurateur, has been serving traditional Thanksgiving dinners to needy Monrovia families for the past three years.

The guests who will dine at Kypreos’ Monrovian Family Restaurant were selected by the Monrovia Unity Center, a charitable community organization that provides food, clothing, and job training for residents throughout the year.

Dinner invitations were issued to the center’s regular recipients, said Josefine Anderson, the center’s executive director. The majority of the diners will belong to large families who normally cannot afford to eat in restaurants, she said.

“Everyone gets dressed up and is prim and proper,” said Anderson, who will serve as hostess. “It won’t be like a soup kitchen. The guests will be treated with great dignity, just like they were paying for the meals.”

Kypreos, his wife, Maria, 36, and their children, ages 9, 11 and 14, will also help out. The restaurant will be closed to the general public while the free meals are served from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“I see people need it,” Kypreos said, explaining that he got the idea for the dinner while driving by the Unity Center, where he often saw long lines of people standing outside. “I’m responding to the needs of people who have no place to go on Thanksgiving Day.”

During holidays in his native Greece, everyone makes sure that their neighbors have enough to eat, he said.

Kypreos, however, would not say how much the food--including 24 turkeys and 100 pies--will cost him.

“It’s my cost,” said Kypreos, who lives in Glendora. “I don’t want to talk about dollars. If I do something, I don’t want people to think I’m bragging.

“I’m thankful I have what I have. It’s something to give back to the community.”

Kypreos, a member of St. Anthony Greek Orthodox Church of Pasadena and the San Gabriel Valley, said he was penniless when he left Greece in 1968. He settled first in Las Vegas, where he worked as a casino dealer for 10 years. After deciding he wanted to own his own business, he moved his family to Southern California and bought the restaurant.

Business was sluggish when he opened the Monrovian 13 years ago, Kypreos recalled, but things picked up when he became involved in community events.

During an interview Monday at the popular downtown eatery on Myrtle Avenue, several patrons praised Kypreos for reaching out to the poor.

“I congratulate you on doing such a great thing for needy people,” said Duarte resident Elissa Jaresh, patting Kypreos on the back.

She said she dines at the restaurant about once a week.

“It’s a wonderful thing,” said Janice McCandless, 47, an El Monte resident who eats at the restaurant at least three times a week. “I think more people should do something like this.”

Kypreos said his greatest reward comes when people ask whether he is going to serve the free dinners again.

“I feel good when they ask,” he said. “As long as I have this restaurant, I will do this.”