In 2007, my brother and I officially took over the company. We took it from a Greek runaway come to
America to find a new home. We took it from a restaurant visionary who staked it all to make a name for
his family. We took it from the loving arms of our parents who breathed life into the world around them.

We took it, and it was like, “oh no...now what?”

Since then we’ve worked towards one goal: to live out and grow the idea that more often than not, it’s
worth putting other people first. We’ve sought to understand what turning towards one another really
looks like and in so doing, see if our restaurant would stand the test of time. It has endured three
generations, seven decades, and now a worldwide pandemic. In truth though, there’s not been enough
time to know one way or the other. Food & Wine Magazine once called Canlis “one of the 40 most
important restaurants in the past 40 years.” We’ve humbly received 22 consecutive Wine Spectator Grand
Awards. We’ve been nominated for 15 James Beard Awards and we've won three of them.

Once, this guest called and left a message saying I had really nice hands. Here’s the thing, praise comes in
all forms. But the voice we trust most is that one inside calling us to love on our neighbors and serve
them a really nice meal.

Most nights, we’ll be right here, waiting to do just that.

Words by Mark Canlis

Family lore has it that as a very young man, Nicholas Kanlis swam five miles from the island of Lesvos,
Greece to the shores of Turkey. Then he hitchhiked his way to the Mena House Hotel in Cairo where he
met Teddy Roosevelt and signed on as a cook for the Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition. For
more than a year they traveled the rural Africa together, collecting 1100 specimens that would find their
way back to the Smithsonian Institute. Eventually, Nick would reach American shores, clearing
immigration with an Egyptian passport and settling down in Stockton, California.

Along the way he met our great grandmother, an immigrant herself--a Lebanese beauty--and the most
talented cook our dad claims to have ever met. Together, they opened the first-generation Canlis
restaurant in 1910. It was a mom and pop shop from the old world. A family cafe they named The Food
Palace and Fish Grotto. It was heart and sweat and hope. The untamed west and the streets of Stockton,
two honest, immigrant parents and “The Palace” raised our grandfather. His name was Peter Canlis.

Words by Mark Canlis

Family lore has it that as a very young man, Nicholas Kanlis swam five miles from the island of Lesvos,
Greece to the shores of Turkey. Then he hitchhiked his way to the Mena House Hotel in Cairo where he
met Teddy Roosevelt and signed on as a cook for the Smithsonian–Roosevelt African Expedition. For
more than a year they traveled the rural Africa together, collecting 1100 specimens that would find their
way back to the Smithsonian Institute. Eventually, Nick would reach American shores, clearing
immigration with an Egyptian passport and settling down in Stockton, California.

Along the way he met our great grandmother, an immigrant herself--a Lebanese beauty--and the most
talented cook our dad claims to have ever met. Together, they opened the first-generation Canlis
restaurant in 1910. It was a mom and pop shop from the old world. A family cafe they named The Food
Palace and Fish Grotto. It was heart and sweat and hope. The untamed west and the streets of Stockton,
two honest, immigrant parents and “The Palace” raised our grandfather. His name was Peter Canlis.

In 1939, Peter left the family and its restaurant and struck out on his own. Maybe he was keeping in his
father’s tradition. A few who knew him said he had something to prove—a vision too grand for his
family’s small cafe to bear. With the untested confidence of youth and a first-generation immigrant chip
on his shoulder, he left to make a name for himself in Hawaii. It was then a place of passenger ships and
Pan-American Airways, royal palaces and rows of palms on underdeveloped beaches. This paradise was
full of promise. And war.