For more than a decade Downers Delight has pleased palates with its food, but for the past few years the owners have brought a different delight to customers.
“We have people come here and say, ‘Who did the flowers?’ When I say I do, they thank me,” said Olga Letsos, owner of Downers Delight.
Olga Letsos and her husband, Jim Letsos, have owned the restaurant for 13 years. For the last five years, Olga Letsos has used her natural green thumb to bring different colors.
“Before the landscaping was smaller, we didn’t have the outside,” she said.
So she decided to bring her love for flowers to her customers each spring.
In total, it takes Olga Letsos three weeks to finish planting her garden, which begins in the front of her restaurant on 75th street and extends down the patio.
The array of flowers and colors can be seen by motorists and passerbys on the street.
“I like different colors,” Olga Letsos said. “I like to mix different colors together.”
Olga Letsos has been gardening her whole life. Her mother used to plant flowers back in Greece, where she moved from 37 years ago.
“My mom, she loved flowers, too, so that’s how I started this,” Olga Letsos said.
Jim Letsos said people often talk and compliment his wife’s gardening.
“They walk down here hand in hand and go all the way down. They take pictures.” Jim Letsos said.
Olga Letsos said people often ask her to name the flowers that inhabit her garden. But she admits she does not know every name.
“I’m a person that goes to different places and when I find a plant I like, I just plant them,” Olga Letsos said.
She has somewhere between 15 and 20 different kinds of flowers.
“There’s a plant outside and people keep asking, ‘What is the name of that plant?’ and I don’t check names,” Olga Letsos said.
Many customers also ask how she keeps her garden growing. Her answer is simply love.
“People who love flowers know what I mean,” Olga Letsos said. “I just go around and touch them. It’s my love.”
Aside from asking for names and gardening secrets, customers come with many compliments. Often, people ask who their landscaper is.
“They say ‘Can you come to my house?’ Olga Letsos said. “They say it jokingly.”
But Olga Letsos is not a stranger to helping out customers. Though she’s never been to anyone’s garden to help, she gladly gives seeds to those who ask. And even if she isn’t handing them seeds, customers always have a piece of the garden on their table. All of the flowers in the restaurant are cut from it.
