Kebab king ends Kitchen reign

A doctorate is not often associated with serving kebabs to hungry folk, but Tony Ansara believes a degree in life experience has helped him to become the man he is today.

Fourteen years as owner- operator of the much-loved Kebab Kitchen in Warnbro ended for Mr Ansara last month when the store was sold, having gained a reputation for offering family recipes that elevated the humble kebab well beyond being a late-night, beer-fuelled hunger fix.

Despite previous studies in nutritional therapies, Mr Ansara believes life's lessons led to the reward of satisfied customers. "I've got a PhD from the school of hard knocks - that's how I feel," he says.

Mr Ansara opened the Warnbro store in 2002 with his father, Michael, and wife Angie.

A proud Rockingham resident, Mr Ansara's holistic, hard-working approach led to an engagement with his food and customers, ensuring Kebab Kitchen's longevity.

"People were looking for something different, and we offered it," he says.

"Combined together - right time, right place, right period of history, the right everything - it all just gelled together, and when the fruit was ripe, it needed to fall off the tree."

In 1982, Mr Ansara's parents opened Perth's first kebab store at Plaza Arcade in the city's CBD, and he remembers it being so popular that queues would stretch towards the entrance of Myer more than 100m away.

"That was the beginning of my memory of being in the kebab shop; I would have been five or six years old," he says.

"My mum and dad had great recipes - and apparently a bunch of other people think they had great recipes too."

The role of family in Mr Ansara's life continues today - he credits wife Angie, with whom he has two children, for making the 14 years of running a business together possible.

"She's my right arm and my right leg," he says.

"I attribute a lot of my own success to the fact that I've got this beautiful woman that's devoted to me and loves me as much as I love her.

"We stand together and work together … we're best friends."

Queried about his role as a long-term employer of young people in the community, Mr Ansara hopes he may have been able to offer them some form of guidance. "They could answer that question; I'd like to think that the answer is yes," he says.

"These guys would come into our lives and most of them, 90 per cent of them, were there for a bare minimum of one, one-and-a-half years.

"You develop a friendship with them; camaraderie."

Despite a new life experience in the real estate industry beckoning, Mr Ansara does not see his love for his home town changing and considers Rockingham the place he will spend the rest of his days.

"We're part of a community," he says. "I feel like (Kebab Kitchen) infiltrated my personality into the community so that I met so many people - it's beautiful."