John H. Katsinas was just 16 or 17 years old when, in 1906, he left his family in Platonos, Greece, to forge a new life in America. On arriving in the United States, he found his way to St. Louis, which had gained no small measure of fame from mounting the largest world’s fair in history—the Louisiana Purchase Exposition—just two years earlier. There Katsinas landed a job in a small cafe, and over the next decade he demonstrated a natural aptitude for the work that would become his life’s calling.
Then came World War I. Katsinas, like many other Greek-Americans, suddenly found himself serving his adopted country overseas, as a sergeant in the U.S. army. Fortunately, he was able to return home from the war after the Armistice of 1918 ended all fighting between the Allies and Germany on the Western Front.
In 1919 Katsinas met Peter J. Sutter (born Sotirpoulou), another Greek immigrant, in St. Louis. The two men soon went into business together, opening a small restaurant in Decatur, Illinois, that—in a nod to World War I—they called the Victory Cafe. Soon after that Katsinas married Euthimia Polydorepoulou, whose name had been Americanized to Ethel Politer on her arrival in the United States, and before long the newlyweds were joined a daughter (the first of their four children). Around the same time Katsinas and Sutter decided to close the Victory Cafe in Decatur and reopen it in Mattoon, Illinois, where the establishment quickly became a local favorite. Their restaurant did so well, in fact, that Katsinas and Sutter, billing themselves as “Exponents of Good Living,” opened two more restaurants—the Castle Inn Rotisserie and Beef Steak Mike—in Mattoon.
In 1929, eager to strike out on his own, Katsinas ended his 10-year partnership with Sutter and moved to Champaign, Illinois, where in the years to come he would open three restaurants: The Tavern, the Katsinas Cafe, and the Katsinas Buffet. All became hugely popular dining spots, especially with the throngs of locals and visitors attending “Fighting Illini” football games on the University of Illinois campus.
In 1941 Katsinas expanded yet further, opening a Katsinas Cafe in Springfield, Illinois, that quickly became a favorite of the political elite in the state capital. Five years later, however, a devastating fire destroyed the restaurant. Katsinas vowed to rebuild, but shortages of building materials in the immediate aftermath of World War II, coupled with his own recurring health problems, prevented him from following through. Undeterred, Katsinas set his sights on Collinsville, Illinois, just east of St. Louis.
Collinsville, the self-proclaimed “Horseradish Capital of the World,” was also home to the hugely popular Fairmount Park racetrack, and Katsinas knew that in the restaurant business big crowds nearly always meant big business. And so in 1947 he signed a renewable lease on a sprawling but now-closed nightclub in Collinsville known as Evergreen Gardens. Located at 1701 St. Louis Road (U.S. Highway 40) at the intersection of Highways 40 and 157, the establishment had in recent years been a bustling gambling and entertainment operation known for its ties to Frank L. “Buster” Wortman, a notorious St. Louis bootlegger and gangster whose organization had a virtual monopoly on gambling, slot machines, horse parlors, card games, and assorted other illegal rackets in St. Louis and southern Illinois.
Katsinas transformed the venue into the Katsinas Evergreen Cafe, which opened on August 30, 1947. The main building, a Spanish-style structure, featured a glass-surrounded kitchen that allowed patrons to watch their meals being prepared. The restaurant boasted a main dining room and ballroom with a seating capacity of 400, two additional dining rooms, a bar room, a service bar, and a cocktail lounge named the Oval Room for the shape of its star attraction: an 85-foot bar with a walnut base and polished mahogany top. An advertisement from the era touted nightly entertainment in the Oval Room, “perfect food” (with “chops, fowls, sea foods, steaks” listed as specialties, and the promise that “You will always enjoy yourself at Katsinas.”
As Evergreen Gardens had originally been built by the family in Collinsville that owned Schnell Nurseries, the grounds were beautifully landscaped, with hundreds of evergreen trees and a spring-fed lily pond illuminated at night by colored lights. The parking lot was large enough to accommodate 300 or so vehicles.
Despite its initial success, the new restaurant became something of an albatross for Katsinas. In 1949 he filed a $200,000 lawsuit against the property’s owners, Mr. and Mrs. H.C. Schnell, citing their “procrastination” in adhering to the terms of the original lease agreement and alleging assorted breaches of the contract, including their failure to build a drive-in restaurant. The legal dispute led to the closing of the Katsinas Evergreen Cafe before the year was out.
Just after Thanksgiving of that year, a listing under “Business Opportunities” in the classified-advertising section of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch offered a “Tavern and Night Club” with the following details: “Evergreen Gardens, Collinsville, Ill., Highway 40 and 157; most beautiful; completely furnished; 900 ft. parking lot, black top; oval bar, beautiful stage, 4 dressing rooms, seats 1500, 3 banquet rooms, balcony for weddings; large lake with waterfalls; completely shrubbed; worth $100,000; owner will take $30,000 complete; would also make a beautiful Chinese cafe.” There apparently were no takers.
Around this time Katsinas’s health began to fail, and he died at age 60 in 1951. (Ethel had died three years earlier at age 48.) The daily newspaper in Mattoon described Katsinas “a hard worker” and noted that some of his friends attributed his death “to strenuous hours spent at his business.”
In 1952 the G.S. Suppiger Company, best known for the Brooks brand of tomato products, moved its headquarters from St. Louis to the Collinsville property that had been home to the Katsinas Evergreen Cafe. (Three years earlier the company had built a 170-foot-tall water tower in the shape of Brooks Catsup bottle just south of its Collinsville bottling plant.) Then, in 1964, the Church of the Nazarene, originally chartered in East St. Louis in 1929, relocated to the Evergreen Gardens building, where it remains to this day.
Turkey Hash, New Orleans Style
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Loading...The term "hash" originates from the French word "hacher," meaning "to chop," aptly describing the dish's preparation method. Historically, hash has been a practical way to repurpose leftover meats and vegetables, minimizing food waste. This version of turkey hash was one of the favorite dishes of B.H. Cherry, the chef at Katsinas Evergreen Cafe in Collinsville, Illinois, which Greek-American restaurateur John Katsinas opened in 1947 and closed in 1949.
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
- 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 6 fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1 pimento, diced
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 2 cups diced cooked turkey
- 6 raw oysters, chopped
- 1 large or 3 small potatoes, boiled and diced
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1–2 cups cooked white rice
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
- 1 large stuffed olive, sliced (optional, for garnish)
Instructions
Melt 4 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the green pepper, onion, mushrooms, and pimentos. Sauté until softened, about 3 minutes.
Stir in the cream and chicken broth, followed by the turkey, oysters, potatoes, salt, and white pepper. Cook gently over medium heat until the mixture begins to steam.
Prepare a roux by melting 1 tablespoon of the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir in the flour and cook, whisking continuously, until smooth and lightly golden, about 2 minutes. Gradually whisk the roux into the turkey mixture, cooking until the sauce thickens slightly.
Fluff the cooked rice with a fork, then stir in the remaining tablespoon of butter and the parsley.
Arrange the rice in a ring around the edge of a serving platter. Spoon the turkey hash into the center. Garnish with sliced stuffed olives, if desired. Serve immediately.
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