A Waitress’s Tip, a Brother’s Dream and 60 Years of Pancakes: The Family Behind Orange’s Chip’s

Before George Chatzopoulos owned Chip’s, he was a customer.

Milford Voice Sponsor

Meet Carrie — $15 New Client Special

He was managing a diner in West Haven then, his sister Dina Chatzopoulos Bajko told CT Insider this summer, and on his days off he went to Chip’s in Orange for the pancakes. “He just loved the quality of the pancakes — they’re like, wow, they’re fresh and different,” she said.

So he asked a waitress to let him know if the owners ever wanted to sell. “The waitress one day said to him, ‘I think the owners are selling.’ So he set up a meeting, he called me up, and that’s history,” Bajko said.

That was more than two decades ago. This year Chip’s Family Restaurant turned 60. Chatzopoulos didn’t live to see it, but by his sister’s account he’s still very much part of the place.

From Perkins to Chip’s

The restaurant’s history starts in 1966, when Charles “Chip” Marks opened it on the Boston Post Road. According to Bajko, it was originally part of the Perkins Pancake House chain. Marks owned the Orange location and renamed it Chip’s in the 1980s, she told CT Insider.

Chatzopoulos, known to most people as “Georgie,” came to the United States from Greece in 1987 and worked in restaurants for years before taking over Chip’s in 2003, Patch reported in 2022. Scott Dolch, president of the Connecticut Restaurant Association, told Patch that Chatzopoulos “lived the true American dream,” starting in an entry-level job and working his way up to owning several restaurants. Patch reported that he mixed Mediterranean favorites from his Greek heritage into a menu of American comfort food.

He opened a second Chip’s in Fairfield in 2011. At one point there were five, including Wethersfield, Southbury and Southington. He closed those three soon after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, his sister said.

Losing Georgie

Chatzopoulos died in January 2022 after a yearlong battle with brain cancer. Bajko, his sister and business partner, told the New Haven Register he died peacefully in her arms, Patch reported.

Tributes came in fast. “As great as he was as a business owner, he was an even better person,” Dolch told Patch. People remembered the “pancakes for dinner” fundraisers he held and the batter, syrup, butter and coffee he gave away, and the equipment he lent to community and church fundraisers.

Chatzopoulos had always wanted a patio at the Orange location, and his sister had promised him she would build it. When the town approved it in March 2022, she cried “happy tears,” she told the New Haven Register, as CT Insider recounted. She wants customers to feel “like they’re walking in their backyard and sitting on their patio having their meal.”

“My brother lives in our hearts on a daily basis,” she told CT Insider. Walk into either restaurant, she said, and “you will see a million, gazillion pictures through the years of my brother.”

Purple pancakes

Dina and her husband, Adam Bajko, are Chip’s co-owners today, according to a June community post marking the 60th anniversary, and they have kept up the giving. In June, the Amity Chamber of Commerce held an after-hours event at the Orange restaurant called “Chip In to End Alzheimer’s.” It raised more than $500 and kicked off Chip’s annual Purple Pancake Day on June 22. Proceeds from the specialty purple pancake stacks at both the Orange and Fairfield locations went to the Alzheimer’s Association Connecticut Chapter, according to a community post on Patch also published by Orange Town News.

The evening turned into a surprise. State Rep. Kathy Kennedy presented a General Assembly citation for the restaurant’s 60 years, and Amity Chamber CEO Barry Lee Cohen said the Bajkos “continue the charitable legacy of Dina’s brother, the late George Chatzopoulos.” We couldn’t find a public explanation of why the family chose Alzheimer’s as its cause. It’s one of the first things we’d like to ask.

85-cent pancakes

Then came the birthday party. For the July 20 celebration, CT Insider reported, both locations planned to roll back to 1966 prices for the morning: a stack of three buttermilk pancakes for 85 cents and a cup of coffee for 15 cents. Servers would wear T-shirts printed with a 1966 photo of the original pancake house, and Bajko was encouraging them to wear bell-bottoms if they owned any. The plan also included vintage cars, a DJ playing ’60s music, and a cotton candy machine, “to sugar up the children to take them home,” she joked.

The prices weren’t meant to make money. “That’s why it’s my thank you,” she said. The restaurant’s website boasts “over 40 varieties” of pancakes and says everything is still made in-house.

“It’s a second home to us going into our location, seeing all these familiar faces,” Bajko said. “My brother would love it, every second of it.”

Get Milford’s best stories first — subscribe to the free Milford Voice newsletter

Got a tip? Email news@milfordvoice.com

Photos courtesy of Chip’s Family Restaurant (chipsrestaurants.com).