Pittsburgh bids farewell to iconic Yia Yia
They built a life around ice, making a wintertime wedding appropriate for Gus Kalaris and his North Side sweetheart, who would become affectionately known around Pittsburgh as “Yia Yia.”
Summers belonged to the lively orange ice ball cart perched next to the tennis courts in West Park, near the intersection of West Ohio Street and Ridge Avenue.
So Kalaris married Stella Bistolas on Valentine's Day in 1954. He was 21. She was 18.
Stella Kalaris, known for her warm demeanor and tasty Greek meals, died Wednesday at her Brighton Heights home after a long illness. She was 81.
“We grew up together,” Gus Kalaris said Friday as he greeted a steady stream of well-wishers, including Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney, during visitation at Calvary United Methodist Church on the North Side.
She and her husband owned and operated Gus & Yia Yia's, pouring a rainbow of flavors like cherry, lime and banana over hand-shaved ice and selling bags of popcorn and roasted peanuts to neighborhood residents and metro Pittsburghers. They were both North Side natives, meeting through Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church.
“The way she treated people, everybody loved her,” Gus Kalaris said. “They more or less came to see her before they came to see me. Every day, we loved dealing with people from all walks of life.”
Their ice ball business originated in 1934, when Gus' father, George Kalaris, bought the cart from a retiring street vendor for $175. Kalaris started helping by carrying things and cleaning up when he turned 8, and took over the business when his dad died in 1951. He renamed it Gus & Yia Yia's, the original “Yia Yia” being his mother, Pauline, who died in 1992. Yia Yia is Greek for grandmother.
After their two daughters grew up, Stella Kalaris became a fixture at the ice ball cart next to her husband up until about three years ago. Spinal stenosis and chronic leukemia slowed her, said her youngest daughter, Christina Avlon.
“My mother became the new Yia Yia,” Avlon said. “Everybody knew my parents from being down there, seven days a week, April through October.”
As friends and customers stopped to pay respects Friday, Avlon was overwhelmed by the stories.
Their popularity grew to the point where Pittsburgh City Council declared April 25, 2012, as Gus & Yia Yia Day.
“I can't believe the outpouring,” Avlon said. “One woman told me about a hot day when my mother took her child into the car to turn on the air conditioner. She said, ‘Come on, your child is overheating.' Stories like that exemplify how kind my parents were to everyone.”
Gus Kalaris plans to park the iconic cart in the same spot in early April next year and continue shaving ice for his patrons.
“He's already asking me if I think it's going to be a rough winter,” Avlon said. “He plans to be there in the spring.”
Painted on the side of the car is the slogan “On the North Side since your dad was a lad.”
Stella Kalaris is survived by another daughter, Penny Pefanis, 61, a brother, John Bistolas, four grandchildren, two step-grandchildren and three step great-grandchildren.
A funeral service was held Saturday at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, McCandless.
The family requests memorial contributions to honor Stella Kalaris be sent to Pittsburgh North Side Leadership Conference Scholarship Fund, 2nd Floor, 1319 Allegheny Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15233, or Holy Trinity Philoptochos, 985 Providence Blvd., Pittsburgh, PA 15237.
Ben Schmitt is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-320-7991 or bschmitt@tribweb.com.
