Peter Tsadilas, the owner of the Golden Globe Diner in Huntington, New York — a lovely town in Suffolk County on the North Fork of Long Island — may look like just another Greek diner guy in a state with a lot of them. As he has said in interviews, “I’m not Jewish, but my father-in-law is Jewish. My partner is Jewish. My best friend is Jewish,” and he’s standing with Israel and with his Jewish friends, customers, and neighbors, and taking a lot of flak for it. A big display of Israeli flags and hostage posters was torn down, he got threats, some customers and DoorDash drivers (who tried to cut him off from the app until he threatened legal action) boycotted, and three staffers quit. He has responded by putting up even more flags and posters and a big “Greek Diners Stand With Israel” sign. Jewish customers have been rewarding him with their patronage.
Where did Tsadilas learn that kind of fortitude? Well, some people just have it. But he also went through another public ordeal five years ago that drove bad publicity, cost him customers, and almost wrecked his business — and his stubbornness got him through it. In 2018, Tsadilas was arrested for animal cruelty on charges of starving his dog. At the time, he reported dealing with online threats, efforts to run him out of business, and ugly harassment: “They’ve been throwing feces at the diner,” he said. “They’ve been throwing eggs at our employees. They’ve been calling the diner barking all day, all night.” Tsadilas insisted that he’d been feeding the dog, who nonetheless kept mysteriously losing weight. Finally, a vet found a six-pound ovarian tumor — revealing the cause of the mysterious weight loss. Tsadilas insisted on fighting the criminal charges — which carried up to a year in prison — and clearing his good name: “I’m sure I could have settled and walked away,” he said. “I’m sure I could have had a little blemish on my name, but I don’t want that. I do not want that. I don’t want my daughter to ever have to deal with her father being that.” After he was acquitted, he blamed the public rush to judgment, and his critics slinked away. Now, he’s sticking up for others who find themselves embattled, slandered, and in need of good friends.