George Sitaras was from the Greek Island of Patmos and came to Troy in 1914 from Opelika, with his sister Mary and brother-in-law Victor Balako. Balako opened Mary's Place, and Sitaras opened the Riverside on South Court Square, except it wasn't called the Riverside when it first opened. A fire occurred in Montgomery on South Court Street around this time, and the Riverside Café (which was actually near the Alabama River) was burned. Sitaras went up to the fire sale the café held and came home with its lighted sign, "Riverside."He hung it up, and his restaurant was "The Riverside" from that point onward. It became the number-one late-night eatery in Troy for nearly five decades. Sitaras became ill and sold his restaurant to his primary employee, Charlie Childs, in 1947. Childs and his wife, Willette, continued with the Riverside operation. Sitaras
died in 1949.
Mr. Charlie's son-in-law, Stanley Huner, later took over the operation and continued the Riverside's tradition of fine food and good times until he died in 1971. The famous restaurant closed for good that year. The Riverside once sold
beer, but it never sold liquor. Instead, the restaurant's regulars kept their drinks in a backroom of the café. When they came in to eat, they simply walked to the back room and mixed their drinks. More deals were made in the
Riverside than were ever concocted on the golf course at the Troy Country Club.