Gabriel Safatli and Tanya Desrosiers are celebrating their 10th anniversary of being in business at Gabano鈥檚 Pizza in Canora and they鈥檙e saying 鈥渢hank you鈥� to the community.
鈥淲e made Gabano鈥檚 the business it is. We鈥檙e happy here. Canora has been good to us and the kids love it here,鈥� said Safatli.
鈥淐anora has been the biggest chapter in our lives,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t humbles me thinking how good the Canora people have been to us.鈥�
Safatli said they also worked to earn the patronage received by his business. Ingredients are always fresh and healthy. 鈥淲e won鈥檛 serve anything we wouldn鈥檛 eat ourselves 鈥� and we eat here every day.鈥�
The pizza business, which is located in the former Glenn鈥檚 Billiards building on the first block of Main Street, was started by his cousin Pierre (Joe) Haydar, who called it Tony鈥檚 Pizza in honour of his son.
Originally from Halifax where his parents operated a pizzeria, Safatli said he has been making pizza all his life. He also kept close ties with his parents鈥� ancestral home in Lebanon. His early years were spent in the Halifax area, but when he began Grade 7, he moved to Lebanon to finish his high school education. After high school, he attended university in Lebanon and worked in a pub. After eight years in Lebanon, he returned to Canada and attended Dalhousie University in Halifax, where he continued his studies into computer science.
But it was the family tradition of making pizza, that goes back three generations, which Safatli could not resist. When he heard that his cousin, Pierre Hayder, was doing well in the west, he and Desrosiers who had been together for three years in Halifax, decided to move west where they would set down roots to raise a family.
When they first came to Saskatchewan, they looked around Yorkton for work and Safatli ended up working for a pizza business in Melville. Desrosiers came to Canora in January of 2005 and worked at Tony鈥檚 Pizza. Soon afterwards, Haydar decided to sell and Safatli and Desrosiers were looking to buy.
Every pizzeria has its own recipe and style, said Safatli. In Canora, he decided to make an Italian or New York style pizza with a thinner crust, a sauce created by his family and only the best, fresh ingredients, which are prepared daily. Even the dough recipe has been passed down through his family over three generations and it is always made fresh. The meats and cheese are hand cut daily. Baking the pizzas directly on the brick stone in the oven, rather than in a pan, adds much to the texture and flavour of the product.
Sub sandwiches have always been part of the menu because the ingredients are much the same as what is used in pizza, Safatli said. He reiterated that offering the customers the same quality, freshness and healthy food choices that he gives his family is something the customers appreciate.
It was within the first couple of years after they took over the business that the name was changed to Gabano鈥檚 Pizza, Safatli said. When thinking of a new name that would be theirs, they began to make a play on Gabriel鈥檚 name 鈥� Gabe鈥檚 鈥� Gabby鈥檚 鈥� before finally settling on Gabano鈥檚.
While he always loved where he lived, Safatli said 鈥淐anora is really God鈥檚 country鈥� and the people have been wonderful. The couple enjoys being part of the community and are always ready to support community projects. For years, the Canora Junior Elementary School has been selling Gabono鈥檚 pizzas as a fundraiser and the business reciprocated by donating bicycles as prizes for the accelerated reader program. It was something they had done for years, but last year the Canora Fire Department made the offer to donate the bicycles. Gabano鈥檚 continues to support the school in other ways.
Over the years, Gabano鈥檚 has supported numerous sports and other programs in the community, including the Canora senior Cobras hockey team when it had an active program.
The couple has two children, Liam, 13, and Michael, 8, who are in grades seven and three, respectively, and Canora has been the only home they鈥檝e known. Safatli and Desrosiers love the idea of continuing to make Canora their home and being part of the community.
To say thank you to their customers for 10 years of patronage, Gabano鈥檚 Pizza is celebrating the 10th anniversary with a special on extra large classic pizzas from Wednesday to Friday, this week, and the special will continue on Fridays.
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