Running Tina’s Grill for the past five years hasn’t been the easiest task Sam Saberi has ever taken on, but it’s an experience for which he’s long been ready.
Even as the pandemic presented huge challenges preventing the Aurora restaurant from providing seating service, Saberi says the community stepped up by ordering takeout, which went a long way to keeping the restaurant going.
Now that the pandemic is in the past, Sam and his folks, Harry and Azar, are able to focus on what they enjoy most – providing fresh, homemade food to their customers. While Saberi and his dad share the cooking, his mom runs the front of the house.
“Our pastas are fresh, our sauces and pastas are homemade, our burgers are homemade,” he begins, “our wings are always fresh, never frozen.
“My style of cooking is more Italian and my dad is more everything, like grill and pub,” although they both make the sauces.
The menu changes every season, with a focus on lighter fare, including bruschetta and flatbreads in the summertime, and switches to heartier meals like prime rib during the winter, keeping the fan favourites as the menu changes and introducing new items along the way.
While Sam has big plans for Tina’s – he’d love to franchise it – his focus is really on the day-to-day and a very big part of that is community.
In 2022 he was named Aurora’s citizen of the year for his “unwavering love for Aurora” and being a strong advocate for local businesses. The award exemplifies commitment, passion and dedication to the town.
Every month, five families who could use a little support are invited to enjoy a meal at Tina’s. And the restaurant has served as a drop-off location for Christmas toy donations. Sam has also run a successful donation campaign for the people of Ukraine.
But his involvement extends beyond the doors of his business.
He once stopped to help a driver who had suffered a medical condition and lost control of his vehicle. With others, he was able to help the driver to safety. And during the pandemic, he chronicled his personal journey, illustrating how vaccines saved his life.
Giving back, he says, comes from his experience during the pandemic when he and his family felt supported by their customers. But he says his grandmother’s words have always resonated for him.
“She taught me no matter how much you have or how little you have, someone always has less than you, so always give back and always be kind, it will come back to you in unexpected ways,” he says.
Sam was introduced to the restaurant business early on. His dad, who had been an engineer before the family immigrated from Iran, was passionate about food, so he studied culinary arts and soon found his calling in Canada in the restaurant business, opening two restaurants.
One particularly busy Friday night, Harry asked Sam, at age 15, to help out at the restaurant where he was working. Washing dishes that night wasn’t particularly appealing, yet the younger Saberi soon found himself on the weekend schedule.
In subsequent years, he worked his way up to line chef and he earned his culinary Red Seal certificate, sharing his dad’s love of cooking. He worked at a dental restoration company as his main occupation but when that ended, he was able to focus on the restaurant business full time.
While working at Tina’s Grill part time, when the former owner decided to move in 2019, Sam and his parents bought the restaurant and thought keeping the name would be a nice tribute to his sister, Tina, although she’s not involved in the business.
“We always wanted to buy our own restaurant,” he says.
The Saberis made it more family friendly, introducing more tables and reducing the number of bar seats. They introduced a new menu and got word out via social media. Six months later, COVID-19 changed the world and impacted so many businesses, including theirs. Tina’s Grill, he says, did enough business through take-out to keep the doors open.
Now, on the cusp of celebrating their fifth anniversary at Tina’s, the Saberis look forward to another summer as Sam eyes the possibility of one day franchising. As a big Philadelphia Flyers fan, he envisions creating a Tina’s Grill in Philadelphia.
