His Father Left a Village in Arcadia, Greece, Fed Saskatchewan for Forty Years, and Poured Everything He Knew into Cameo Pizza. Jamie Is Still There, Still Cooking.
Ross Yannoulis immigrated from Eleohori, Arcadia to Regina in 1971 and spent the next five decades running restaurants across Saskatchewan — Houston Pizza in Yorkton, the Macedonian in Canora, and finally Cameo Pizza, which his son Jamie Yannoulis now operates with his partner Char Korchinski. The family has been feeding the same communities for longer than most of their regulars have been alive.
August 11, 2026 · By Justin Plosz · Yorkton, Saskatchewan · Business · 7 min read read
From Eleohori, Arcadia to Regina, Saskatchewan
The village of Eleohori sits in Arcadia — the mountainous inland region of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, known for its olive groves and for a tradition of emigration that sent young men across the world through the mid-twentieth century. Ross Yannoulis was born there on June 20, 1954. He was seventeen when he left.
He arrived in Regina, Saskatchewan, in 1971. He became a Canadian citizen on August 30, 1976. He met Irene Tanchuk while living in Regina, married her on May 18, 1975, and together they had four children: Kalliopi, Steven, Michael, and Jamie.
Ross had a passion for cooking that was not incidental to his life — it was the organizing force of it. He owned and operated restaurants throughout his years in Saskatchewan, building partnerships with his brother Peter Giannoulis and his friend John Karapanos to create and run establishments that became fixtures in the communities they served. He moved the family to Yorkton in July 1988, and it was there that the family's story became most fully tied to the food it cooked.
Houston Pizza, the Macedonian, and Forty Years of Cooking
Before Cameo Pizza, there was Houston Pizza in Yorkton — a restaurant that Ross operated and that became one of the community's established eating institutions. And before and alongside that, there was the Macedonian in Canora, Saskatchewan — a restaurant that Ross ran as part of the family's footprint across the smaller cities and towns of the province.
This is not a story of one restaurant. It is a story of a family that chose cooking as its way of participating in Saskatchewan life, and did it consistently, across decades, in multiple locations, serving communities that had limited dining options and depended on places like these to anchor their social and culinary life.
For the people who ate at those restaurants — who might have been regulars at Houston Pizza in Yorkton in the 1990s, or who stopped at the Macedonian in Canora on their way through — the food they remember is connected to Ross Yannoulis whether they knew his name or not. He cooked it. His family helped. His children grew up in the kitchen alongside him, learning that feeding people is not a job description, it is a responsibility.
How Jamie and Char Found Each Other
Jamie Yannoulis is the youngest of Ross's four children. He grew up around his father's restaurants, in kitchens where the smell of food was constant and the work was always visible. He watched his father cook for strangers who became regulars, for regulars who became friends, for friends whose families eventually became part of the restaurant's extended community.
Char Korchinski was working at the Macedonian in Canora when she and Jamie met. She had come to the restaurant as staff; the restaurant's owner was Jamie's father. The connection they made there was the beginning of a partnership that would eventually carry the family's cooking tradition forward into a new generation.
The detail matters because it says something about what the restaurants meant to the people who were part of them — not just the customers, but the people who worked there, who were shaped by them, who built relationships that outlasted any particular location or menu. Jamie and Char are now the people behind Cameo Pizza in Yorkton, doing what Ross taught them to do, in a city that their family has been feeding for longer than most of their regulars can remember.
Cameo Pizza Today
Cameo Pizza is at 10 1 Ave N in Yorkton, Saskatchewan — a central, accessible location that reflects the kind of restaurant it is: not destination dining, not a concept, but a neighbourhood institution open from 11 a.m. every day, offering the food that has defined this family's cooking across four decades.
The menu is what you would expect from a family with Greek roots and Saskatchewan experience: pizza, Greek salads, and the daily specials and rotating options that reflect what is fresh and what the regulars know to ask for. The food is cooked by people who learned from someone who came from a village in Arcadia where cooking was not a career choice but a way of life.
Ross Yannoulis passed away on August 12, 2020, surrounded by his family. He was sixty-six years old. He was buried with a ceremony at St. Paul's Greek Orthodox Church in Regina, among the community that had welcomed him almost fifty years earlier when he arrived from Greece with nothing but the energy that would define him: his passion for cooking, his larger-than-life personality, his ability to make any room he walked into feel more alive.
Cameo Pizza is still open. Jamie and Char are still there. The food is still made the same way.
A Legacy Measured in Plates
There is a particular kind of Saskatchewan restaurant legacy that cannot be counted in Michelin stars or food magazine features because it exists in a different economy entirely — measured in the number of times a family returned, in the years a community depended on a place, in the regulars who have been coming since before the current operator was old enough to be behind the counter.
The Yannoulis family has been building that kind of legacy in Yorkton and the surrounding communities for over forty years. Ross started it. Jamie and Char are continuing it. The food connects them to a village in Arcadia and to the rhythms of Saskatchewan small-city life in a way that is not easy to replicate and cannot be manufactured from scratch.
Cameo Pizza is not trying to be anything other than what it is: a family restaurant in Yorkton, run by the family that has been cooking for this community longer than most people realize, still doing it with the care that got them here.
Dine-in and takeout are available. The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. and is located at 10 1 Ave N, Yorkton, SK S3N 0K2. The regulars already know when to arrive. If you are new, now you know the story behind the plate.
Key takeaways
- Cameo Pizza in Yorkton is owned by Jamie Yannoulis and Char Korchinski — continuing a food legacy started by Jamie's father Ross Yannoulis, who immigrated from Eleohori, Arcadia, Greece to Saskatchewan in 1971.
- Ross Yannoulis spent over four decades running restaurants in Saskatchewan, including Houston Pizza in Yorkton and the Macedonian in Canora, before most recently operating Cameo Pizza until his passing in August 2020.
- Jamie and Char met when Char was working for Ross at the Macedonian restaurant in Canora, Saskatchewan — a connection that began in the family's restaurant and grew into the partnership that now runs Cameo Pizza.
- The restaurant is at 10 1 Ave N, Yorkton, SK S3N 0K2, opens at 11 a.m., offers dine-in and takeout, and has a 4.6-star Google rating based on 136 reviews.
- The Yannoulis family's food legacy in Saskatchewan spans over 40 years — a record built not through marketing but through consistently cooking good food for communities that had limited options and depended on family restaurants like this one.
- Cameo Pizza is a Greek-influenced Saskatchewan family restaurant where the connection between the food and the family behind it runs deeper than most diners realize — a story of immigration, community building, and one family's decision to make feeding people their life's work.
Frequently asked questions
- Where is Cameo Pizza located in Yorkton?
- Cameo Pizza is at 10 1 Ave N, Yorkton, SK S3N 0K2. The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. and offers dine-in and takeout. It is centrally located in Yorkton, accessible to the whole city.
- Who owns Cameo Pizza in Yorkton?
- Cameo Pizza is operated by Jamie Yannoulis and his partner Char Korchinski. The restaurant was founded by Jamie's father, Ross Yannoulis — a Greek immigrant who came to Saskatchewan from Eleohori, Arcadia, Greece in 1971 and spent his life running restaurants in the province, including Houston Pizza in Yorkton and the Macedonian in Canora. Ross passed away in August 2020.
- What is the history of Cameo Pizza's family?
- Ross Yannoulis immigrated from Eleohori, Arcadia, Greece to Regina, Saskatchewan in 1971, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1976. He spent his life operating restaurants across Saskatchewan with his brother Peter Giannoulis and friend John Karapanos — including Houston Pizza in Yorkton and the Macedonian in Canora. He moved the family to Yorkton in 1988 and eventually opened Cameo Pizza, which his son Jamie now runs with Char Korchinski. The family has been feeding Saskatchewan communities for over forty years.
- How did Jamie Yannoulis meet his partner Char?
- Char Korchinski met Jamie Yannoulis while working at the Macedonian restaurant in Canora, Saskatchewan — a restaurant operated by Jamie's father Ross. What started as a working relationship at the family's restaurant became a lasting personal partnership. Jamie and Char now run Cameo Pizza together in Yorkton.
- What kind of food does Cameo Pizza serve?
- Cameo Pizza serves pizza, Greek salads, baby back ribs, and Greek-inspired dishes alongside daily specials — reflecting the family's Greek heritage and their four decades of restaurant experience in Saskatchewan. The menu combines familiar Canadian comfort food with the Greek culinary traditions that Ross Yannoulis brought from Arcadia. Vegetarian options are available and the restaurant is family-friendly.
- How is Cameo Pizza rated?
- Cameo Pizza holds a 4.6-star Google rating based on 136 reviews. The rating reflects consistent quality and community loyalty built over decades of the Yannoulis family's presence in Yorkton. The restaurant is a well-established community institution for Yorkton and the surrounding region.
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