On the south side of Devine Street about a block west of Brittons and immediately east of LaRoque sits Devine Foods. It’s an infill kind of lease space with signage so spare passersby can’t notice it. But, somehow, the place is bursting with business — must have something to do with the quality of the food or the quality of the management. The food is Greek, and the management shares a Greek heritage. Of course, when you think of just the chronological series of three ancient Greek philosophers — Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle — we all share a Greek heritage beginning with the Fifth Century BC.

But the food is fine, of course, without historical recall. It’s just that in a representative democracy which is also a republic, eating Greek food always carries a gravitas of some kind. Can’t help it.

Devine Foods is run by Angelo and Georgia Trifos. Angelo, Georgia’s second husband, comes to work every day around 1 pm. Georgia leaves in another hour, about when the lunch traffic subsides. She has typically been there since 6:30 that morning. Georgia doesn’t take the rest of the day off. She takes her ingredients home to her personal kitchen and bakes for the balance of the day. Some afternoons, if she has an especially heavy backlog of baking, she rents the kitchen at their church, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox on Sumter Street, where she is on the board of trustees.

Two hot buttons for any member of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox, one in pride and the other in protest, are the huge new sanctuary, which begins construction in 45 days, and the proposed homeless shelter barely a block away at the Salvation Army site.

Georgia Trifos was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where her parents ran a restaurant. Her father emigrated from Sparta, Greece. She had an older brother by 10 years who worked for the Royal Bank of Canada in Toronto.

Georgia stayed in Halifax for her schooling. In the afternoons, after her public school closed for the day, she alternated between Greek lessons and workouts with her skating club at the ice rink operated by Dalhousie University, also in Halifax.

Becoming a registered nurse, Georgia took classes at both the Halifax Infirmary and Dalhousie University. Upon earning her diploma, she soon married and went with her husband to Boston.

She worked as a nurse at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, which was on Kenmore Square, not far from the Red Sox at Fenway Park. Her husband was at the Greek Orthodox Seminary on Goddard Avenue in Brookline.

After three years in Boston and about one year in Burlington, Vt., Georgia and her husband moved to Houston, Texas, where Georgia worked at the Sharpstown branch of Baptist Hospital, and her husband was with the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The Cathedral is a large, well–known Houston landmark just off Montrose close to the University of St. Thomas and the Menil Collection main museum building.

Following almost three years in Houston, Georgia then had to move to Price, Utah, where her husband was assigned. In the Price hospital Georgia worked in mental health services.

Also while in Price, Georgia’s adoptive daughter Angela came on board. Angela, a special ed teacher for autistic children, lives with her husband and Georgia’s two grandsons, ages eight and four, in Cary, N.C.

Angela’s husband, a CPA, works as the global tax director for Harris Stratex.

From Price, Utah, Georgia became the head nurse for the cardiovascular step–down unit, the after–surgery recovery operation at the Mississippi Heart Institute in Jackson. Her husband had been transferred to an assignment in Jackson by the church.

Three years in Jackson, and Georgia and her husband moved to Columbia, but they separated in 1985.

Georgia went to Greece to care for her mother, and she stayed until she had closed out all her mother’s affairs. While she was tying loose ends of her mother’s estate in Athens, Georgia heard from Angelo Trifos, today her husband and restaurant partner. Georgia first met Angelo when she was 16 and he was 19. Angelo helped Georgia in Athens with inheritance matters of insurance and law. Angelo soon came to South Carolina to visit Georgia in Columbia and to see relatives in Anderson, S.C.

Georgia and Angelo married in 1986, and Devine Foods opened in the next year.

With their fortunate Devine Street location combined with a destination– quality operation, Georgia and Angelo Trifos couldn’t be happier with the quality of their business neighbors and the frequency of their customers.