The co-owner of Montgomery’s oldest family-owned restaurant and one of the oldest hot dog joints in Alabama has died.
Theo Katechis -- whose father, Greek immigrant Christopher Anastasios “Mr. Chris” Katechis, opened Montgomery’s iconic Chris’ Famous Hotdogs on historic Dexter Avenue in 1917 -- died Wednesday, a family member confirmed with AL.com today.
Mr. Katechis was 78.
Dozens of longtime customers dropped by the 107-year-old Montgomery hot dog shop at lunch today to share their memories of Mr. Katechis, his cousin Greg Cumuze told AL.com.
“It’s been real nice,” Cumuze said. “Everybody’s saying just how nice he always was, how pleasant and inviting he was to everyone. . . .
“We’ve had a lot of people come through just kind of feeling nostalgic and taking a walk down memory lane.”
Even though he was well past retirement age, Mr. Katechis continued to work at Chris’ until a couple of months before he died, his cousin added.
“He didn’t want to miss out on the tradition,” Cumuze said. “He loved hearing customers’ stories from here and hearing about his dad.”
At the time of his death, Mr. Katechis co-owned Chris’ Famous Hotdogs with one of his sons, Gus Katechis.
“He loved his customers, and he loved his church, the Greek Orthodox Church,” Gus Katechis said in a statement to Montgomery TV station WAKA/Action 8 News. “Nothing made him smile more than to see happy customers. Everyone was his friend -- old and young, Black and white, rich or poor.”
One of five siblings, Theo Katechis grew up working at his father’s hot dog joint, but as a young man, he had plans to be a farmer, he said in a 2017 interview with the website Made In Alabama.
But after his mother died, and with his father in his 70s, Mr. Katechis later returned to Chris’ fulltime.
“I found out that I was starving as a farmer,” Mr. Katechis said in that 2017 interview. “So, the plan was to go work for the family business for a few years, and then I was going to get the farm going. And here I am, still.”
Located just a few blocks from the Alabama State Capitol, Chris’ Famous Hotdogs has served presidents, civil rights leaders, musicians and movie stars -- including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, George Bush, George W. Bush, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Elvis Presley, Hank Williams, Clark Gable and Jimmy Stewart -- as well as every Alabama governor since 1917, according to the restaurant’s website.
Famous for its made-in-house chili sauce -- a combination of chili powder, hot sauce, mustard, ketchup, barbecue sauce and various other secret -- Chris’ Famous Hotdogs was ranked No. 1 on AL.com’s 2023 list of the Top 10 Hot Dogs in Alabama.
Visitation for Mr. Katechis will be Thursday, May 2, from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 1721 Mt. Meigs Road, in Montgomery. The funeral service will follow at 11:00 a.m.
To read the full obituary for Mr. Katechis, go here.
UPDATED at 1:55 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 25, 2024, to include additional information from Theo Katechis’ family.
UPDATED at 8:25 p.m. CDT on Sunday, April 28, 2024, to add funeral arrangement for Mr. Katechis.
