At little more than five feet, Toula Kourtis walks around the Knotty Pine with a hot coffee pot in hand and an infectious smile. She chats with customers, serves breakfast right off the grill and tops off plain white mugs.
Toula is 81 years old. She’s been commuting to this diner at 295 Auburn Street in Newton, Massachusetts — with its familiar wood paneling — from her home in West Roxbury since she purchased the restaurant in 1987.
“I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur,” she tells me. For personal reasons, she became the breadwinner for her small family — caring for her husband, two boys and a girl. “I went looking for a place to own and found the Knotty Pine right away.”
Like countless others, I found the Knotty Pine when my children were young, and we had just moved to town. It seemed like the perfect place for little ones. A place where you were bound to bump into other neighborhood dads…