BORN:

DELPHI, GREECE, 1961

22 years

since Vasilios arrived in Cambridge and got his first job at Gardie's

Over 7,000

photos of patrons on his wall

3 weeks

Gardie's the Opera's original run at Queens' Extra shows scheduled at the Union due to unanticipated success

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Originally from Greece, 46 year old Vas, as he is more commonly known, has owned and worked in The Gardenia for over twenty

years. He studied engineering at university in Athens and worked for the Greek agricultural minister. He came to England 22 years ago to work on genetic research in Cambridge and first came to Gardie’s in order to be able to speak with staff in his own language.

Before Vas took over, The Gardenia was mainly a restaurant for fellows. Some people claim it was founded in 1902, others say it was founded in 1918. Vas claims that it was originally much more expensive and only frequented by affluent students.
Over the twenty years he has worked there Vas has noticed a change in the type of students who are at Cambridge. Before 2000 they were mostly privately educated but now he thinks they seem to come from a much wider range of backgrounds.

The photographs that paper the wall of Gardie’s originated when a student was desperate for a kebab but didn’t have any money. The penniless student offered to leave his camera as a guarantee that he would pay the next day, but in the end decided to leave the camera as a present. The camera sat on the counter a while until one day Vas began the long standing tradition of photographing his liveliest customers. He keeps all of the photos and has collected almost 7000.

Vas says that the Daily Mail offered him “a lot of money” to buy the photographs but he refused. He wants to create a mammoth exhibition of all the pictures and invite old students to come back and buy them so the money can be donated to local charities.

Some years ago Varsity ran a successful campaign to save The Gardenia from being shut down and ever since then Varsity has been his favourite newspaper.

On the subject of inebriated students, he says: “They are not drunk, they are young. Students have an obligation to have a good time.” Vas’ own son has just started at Kent University studying Archaeology.

Vas says that it is part of his philosophy to pass on a love of life, along with his kebabs. He enjoys having philosophical chats with students upstairs in the Gardenia restaurant. His favourite subjects are the students he has met and the books he has read.

He collects rare books, especially ones about philosophy, religion and alchemy. His favourite book is an untitled collection of scripts by Francis Bacon. He loves writing and plans to publish his memoirs when he has retired.