[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 69 (Tuesday, May 15, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E800]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   REMEMBERING CONSTANTINE G. VALANOS

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. STENY H. HOYER

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, May 15, 2012

  Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I doubt there is a single member of this 
House  or the Senate who has never set foot inside the Monocle on D 
Street. Just steps from the Capitol, the Monocle has been a political 
institution as much as it has been a warm and welcoming restaurant. Its 
tables have long been set with a spirit of friendship that transcends 
party; they have been host to meetings and discussions on nearly every 
issue of national importance. The Monocle has been a place of 
agreement, often at times when disagreement divided us in this House.
  It was Constantine Valanos who brought that warm and inviting place 
to Capitol Hill and to all who serve here. Many of us knew Connie well. 
Connie made a point of knowing and remembering all of us who set foot 
in his restaurant, even if just once in a while. Sadly, Connie passed 
away last month at age 93.
  Constantine George Valanos was born into a family of Greek immigrants 
in Albany, New York, as the First World War was drawing to a close. He 
grew up here in Washington, D.C., and served in the U.S. Navy during 
World War II. Following his discharge, Connie attended the George 
Washington University and pursued a career in accounting. In 1960, 
seeing an opportunity to buy and fix up an old restaurant on Capitol 
Hill, Connie and his wife, Helen--who passed away in 2005 after a 
fifty-three year marriage--opened the Monocle.
  Among their first regular customers were then-Senators John F. 
Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Over the next fifty years the Monocle would 
see a steady stream of Senators, Representatives, future Presidents and 
Vice Presidents, Supreme Court justices, foreign diplomats, and 
ordinary Americans visiting with their elected officials.
  After three decades at the helm, Connie and Helen passed the 
management of the business to their son, John, and daughter-in-law, 
Vasiliki, who continue to run the Monocle today and provide the same 
friendly and welcoming environment to all who step through the door.
  The ancient Greek statesman Pericles said: ``What you leave behind is 
not what is engraved in monuments of stone but what is woven into the 
lives of others.'' Connie Valanos leaves behind a legacy not only of a 
restaurant but also of the countless ways in which he made that 
restaurant a place where leaders come together to hash out the 
agreements that help make our Nation great and improve lives around the 
world. The Monocle, as former Vice President and regular patron Walter 
Mondale once noted, is ``where laws are debated, where policies are 
set, and where the course of world history is changed.'' That is 
Connie's lasting legacy.
  I join in celebrating Connie's life and in offering my condolences to 
his wife Judith, his children, John and George, his three 
grandchildren, and the entire Valanos family.

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