Joe CapozziIn 1988, Pete Roubekas opened his Lake Worth Beach restaurant on Thanksgiving Day to serve free meals to the needy. His act of kindness blossomed into a Turkey Day tradition.
On a November day in 1988, Peter Roubekas slapped a sign on the front door of his restaurant, Farmer Girl at 1732 N. Dixie Highway in Lake Worth, announcing plans to serve free turkey dinners on Thanksgiving Day to the poor and underprivileged.
It was a bold and generous move: A successful restaurant owner opening his doors on a holiday, a day he’s usually closed, so he can give away hot meals to strangers in need.
But for Pete, as everyone calls him, it just felt like the right thing to do.
He has never forgotten the hunger he experienced growing up in Greece before and after World War II. Not long after he opened Farmer Girl in 1982, he noticed increasing numbers of homeless people on the surrounding streets.
Maybe, he thought, he could try to do something nice for them.
“This is the first time we’ve done this and we’re prepared to serve 500 to 700 people. Being Thanksgiving Day, we wanted to give something to people who need it,’’ he told a reporter that day.
“We hope to get some people in here,’’ he added. “It will be beautiful.’’
Turns out it was just the start of something beautiful.
From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Farmer Girl will continue the mostly annual tradition Roubekas started 37 years ago and serve no-strings-attached dinners with all the fixings to anyone who walks in the door, whether homeless, financially struggling or just in need of some holiday company.
Volunteers will also deliver meals within three miles of the restaurant to anyone unable to get to Farmer Girl. For more information, call 561-631-8637.
Farmer Girl isn’t the only place in Palm Beach County serving free hot meals to the needy on Thanksgiving Day. But with Pete’s generosity and determination, the restaurant’s Turkey Day tradition has blossomed into both a beloved part of Lake Worth Beach and something many in the community depend on.
“Pete has a huge heart. He has always looked out for people,’’ said Farmer Girl manager Jennifer Garcia, who’s helping orchestrate this year’s dinner. “I learned from him. I’ve been in a situation where I couldn’t afford food,’’ she said, “so this is very important for me.’’
Thanksgiving Day at Farmer Girl has taken on the feel of a large family gathering, even though few, if any, of the participants know each other. Over the years, the restaurant’s staff has dished out thousands of meals, with help from their own families and other volunteers — civic groups, law enforcement, high school athletic teams.
“It’s a beautiful thing,’’ Pete, 88, said the other day, repeating the same line he has shared with reporters since that first Thanksgiving 37 years ago.
‘I know what being hungry is’
Back in 1988, the first Farmer Girl Thanksgiving was really just Pete’s way of saying thank you to the country that allowed him to flourish.
Born in 1937 in Greece, in a small town an hour from Athens, he remembers a “miserable” childhood of struggle and need in a country invaded by Germany and marred by civil conflicts.
“I was hungry, too, growing up in Greece. So I know what being hungry is,’’ he said.
The son of a policeman and housekeeper, Pete briefly worked as a barber before immigrating to the United States in 1957. With $25 in his pocket, he arrived in West Palm Beach, near where an uncle lived, and went to work as a barber.
After graduating from beauty school in Miami, he moved to Ohio, where his first wife’s family lived, and continued cutting hair. But he grew restless for a different career. And he didn’t mind working long hours.
Trading his shears for a spatula, he went to work at a friend’s eatery outside Cleveland. The rhythm of restaurant work, preparing the food and getting to know the customers, suited Pete.
In 1973, he opened his first restaurant, a 30-capacity operation in rural South Amherst, Ohio. He called it Farmer Boy Restaurant, a nod to its menu of comfort food.
Farmer Boy became so popular that over the next six years he expanded it and opened three other Ohio eateries. Then, he sold them all and moved to South Florida. He thought about retiring but realized he still had an appetite for serving food.
In December 1982, he opened a restaurant in Lake Worth, in a North Dixie Highway building that previously housed Lou’s Italian Villa — “just for something to do, a hobby,’’ he told a reporter in 1983.
He called it Farmer Girl, the next logical choice after learning “Farmer Boy” was already taken by some other Florida eatery.
Like Farmer Boy in Ohio, Farmer Girl in Lake Worth, with its affordable comfort food and Greek dishes, became a local culinary hit.
Life was good for Pete. But he knew others in the community were struggling.
‘Pete, you’re crazy’
On his daily drives to and from his Lake Clarke Shores home, he passed homeless people on the streets and beneath the Dixie Highway bridge by the old IHOP restaurant at the sound end of West Palm Beach.
“Everybody was talking about it at the time: What can they do for the homeless people?’’ he said, recalling a societal issue that hasn’t changed much nearly 40 years later.
“I could give $10 or $100, but that doesn’t do anything,’’ he recalled. “I used to close on Thanksgiving Day in those days, so I decided, ‘Let’s open it and feed the people who need a meal.’’’
He remembers the skeptical reactions from business friends.
“The guy I bought the restaurant from, he said, ‘Pete, you’re crazy. That’s a day to make money.’ But the next day, he saw on TV what I was doing. And he came in and told me I was right.’’
More than 500 showed up for that first Thanksgiving in 1988. Many others telephoned the restaurant to say they needed a meal but had no transportation.
Pete and his staff had cooked turkeys for three straight days to prepare that year. But he knew the need was so great that he had to do it all again the following November.
A few weeks before Thanksgiving 1989, ordered 35 25-pound turkeys and Virginia hams. He also set up a collection can next to the cash register and raised more than $500 for Thanksgiving Day taxi fare. More than 900 people came through the doors.
Some 1,200 were served in 1990, 1,500 in 1991. The need never waned, and the community started to pitch in.
Police officers and other volunteers delivered meals to shut-ins, retirement homes and hospices, often returning with thank you notes and gifts.
“You couldn’t go to The Breakers and get better service than this. That’s a 5 star restaurant, but this is 10 stars,’’ a satisfied recipient gushed to a reporter one year over a plate full of food.
Before long, Farmer Girl’s gesture was attracting TV crews and newspaper reporters every November, a feel-good story that kept giving and even inspired a few out-of-town volunteers.
In 2006, rock singer Steven Tyler, in town for a concert the next day with his band Aerosmith, stopped by to serve meals for two hours.
“I had a Greek orchestra (perform) outside one time. I had people play the violin,’’ Pete said the other day, reminiscing with his close friend Jimmy Theodossakos over coffee in a corner booth.
‘Thanking me from his grave’
Theodossakos, owner of Howley’s Restaurant from 1982 to 1999, enjoyed pitching in. He cooked turkeys in the kitchen at St. Catherine’s Greek Orthodox Church on Southern Boulevard and delivered them to Farmer Girl.
Pete persuaded his suppliers to offer discounted or free cases of turkey, stuffing, yams, cranberry sauce and other staples, to ensure that entire meals with all the fixings were served.
“We are not going to take short cuts just because we are serving poor people,’’ he told a reporter in 1993.
But poor people weren’t the only ones coming by on Thanksgiving Day. And Pete didn’t mind.
“A lot of people ask me, ‘What about those people in the Mercedes?’” he said. “It doesn’t bother me. I opened the door. If they need a meal, they are welcome. I’m not going to turn nobody away.”
By 2005, Farmer Girl was serving 2,000 Thanksgiving Day meals. It had turned into a massive undertaking, starting a week earlier with staff preparing everything from trays of stuffing to hundreds of cups of cranberry sauce.
Pete arrived as early as 5 a.m. to make sure the restaurant was ready when the needy came and went from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
As the years went by, he was getting tired. He toyed now and then with the idea of ending the tradition.
Then one day — not on Thanksgiving — a woman came in and handed Pete an envelope. It was a letter from her recently deceased husband, along with five $100 bills, thanking Pete and Farmer Girl for the many Thanksgiving Day meals he and his wife enjoyed together over the years.
“He was thanking me from his grave,’’ Pete recalled. “And I said to myself, ‘If I satisfy one soul like him, I will continue.’ And this is why we’re still here.’’
‘A nice thing to do’
In 2016, Pete announced that year’s Thanksgiving would be the restaurant’s last — or so he thought. Overseeing the massive operation had become too much, he said at the time.
But three years later, when the pandemic exacerbated the need, the tradition started up again on Thanksgiving Day 2020, thanks to Pete’s son-in-law taking over.
Pete may have retired in 2016, but he still tries to come in several mornings a week to say hello to old friends and staff. One day a few weeks ago, he waved Garcia, the manager, over to his booth. Something urgent was on his mind.
“He sat me down and said, ‘I really hope they are doing Thanksgiving this year.’ I said, ‘Of course, we are,’’’ Garcia recalled, adding: “I just got goosebumps.’’
Pete was asked the other day: How many Thanksgiving Day meals has Farmer Girl served since 1988?
Before he could answer, Theodossakos let out a laugh and replied: “Enough to stretch from here to Greece and back!’’
Thursday will mark Farmer Girl’s 34th Thanksgiving Day.
Pete said he is thankful for new owners Paul Tsouflidis and Rouli Zambiyadis opening the restaurant’s doors again on a holiday that celebrates giving thanks.
“I have given the restaurant to different people to run — because of my age I cannot do it any more — and they kept going also,’’ he said with a smile.
“They continue the tradition because they know we have people lining up,’’ he said. “It’s a nice thing to do, I’ll tell you that.’’
Editor’s note: This story first appeared in the Lake Worth Beach Independent.
Joe Capozzi is an award-winning reporter based in Lake Worth Beach. He spent more than 30 years writing for newspapers, mostly at The Palm Beach Post, where he wrote about the opioid scourge, invasive pythons, and Palm Beach County government. For 15 years, he covered the Miami Marlins baseball team. Joe left The Post in December 2020. He publishes the Lake Worth Beach Independent on Substack, covering the town where he lives.
