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Steve Stamos
Owner, Blue Dolphin Restaurant Every Christmas Day since the 1970s, the Stamos
family of Kalamazoo has had folks over for dinner — hundreds of them. That’s because each year the Stamoses, who own Blue Dolphin in downtown Kalamazoo, offer a free Christmas dinner at their restaurant for all comers. The free Christmas dinners started at the Rex Café, which was opened in 1940 at 432 S. Burdick St. and run by Steve Stamos’ great uncle until he died in 1978. The Rex was then operated by his nephew Pete Stamos, who sold it to his son, Steve, in 1990. Unable to buy the property where the Rex Café was located, Steve moved the restaurant to where it is today, on the corner of Cedar and Burdick streets, and renamed it Blue Dolphin.
Brian Powers
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46 | ENCORE DECEMBER 2018