For years, Sammy Cardabikis’s best view of London has been looking out from the serving window of one of his souvlaki stands.

He watched the world from that vantage point again on the weekend, serving up his classic food and fries that have become as much a part of London’s culinary identity as they are from his Greek roots.

“So glad to see you’re doing so well,” called out a woman passing by the familiar colourful Sammy’s Souvlaki trailer set up at the Home County Folk Festival in London’s Victoria Park.

He gave a friendly, mild wave and quietly went back to the fryer, back to what he knows best and what has made him part of the city’s fabric.

Now, consider how close he came to being ripped from it.

Early next month marks one year since Sotirios (Sammy) Cardabikis, 62, was severely beaten and hospitalized after thugs robbed the Trafalgar Road home base and warehouse of his food stand business — a crime that remains unsolved.

“I’m okay. I feel better now,” he said quietly in his rich Greek accent.

“I’m lucky . . . I’m alive.”

Every bone on one side of Cardabikis’s face was smashed from the blunt end of an axe that was used to beat him by one of the robbers who didn’t even give him time to reach into his pocket and hand them the money they wanted.

He was hospitalized for two weeks. The initial reports were dire. Another month of bed rest at home followed, with no solid food while his face and head healed.

The beating wasn’t the first bump in life’s road for the Greek immigrant, who left his village and was living on his own at a gas station at age 12. He came to London 47 years ago and started the family business from the ground up 38 years ago.

But this time, the comeback has been tougher. While the only outward sign of any trauma is a small whitish scar on the left side of his face, it’s been the inward struggle with post-concussion symptoms that have taken their toll.

“He’s fighting through it. He’s dealing with a lot of pain,” said his daughter, Eleni.

He gets tired. He gets headaches. Multi-tasking is tough.

“I forget things, you know?” he said.

“He’s fighting through it every day. He is a fighter and he fights through,” Eleni said.

On Aug. 2, 2015, Cardabikis and an employee were just closing up after a night at London’s Ribfest, when five masked men stormed the business and demanded money.

One of the attackers wanted the money from the festival sales. “It was a good thing I didn’t have it with that night,” Cardabikis said.

He said he told them to take what they wanted — the trailers, the money, anything. And that’s when he was hit with the axe by one of the bigger, taller men who “wants to knock me completely so I don’t recognize nobody.”

“His hands were the double (size) of mine,” Cardabikis said.

Somehow, after he was hit, Cardabikis was able to keep his wits about him and fight back. He saw that his employee had been knocked to the floor and was bleeding. “ I was worried for him,” he said.

He was able to get under a chair to protect himself while the masked men scoured the business for money and anything to steal. When the big attacker called the other assailants, Cardabikis said he watched them leave, then slowly got up to check the employee, who was conscious.

“They took my phone, they took my keys,” he said. He and the employee got to another phone to call police. By then, the robbers were gone, smashing a video surveillance camera and taking the tape before they left. A police officer had been parked in a nearby lot at the front of the restaurant but didn’t see anything. It became clear the group had come in and left through the back, he said.

“The ambulance came and that’s all I remember after that,” he said.

The hospital stay and the home recuperation were frustrating for the hard-working Cardabikis. While he healed, his wife, Vicky, and his family stepped in to keep the business going during what is traditionally a busy time of year.

“You can’t drop those contracts,” he said.

Support came from across the city, from people who see the Sammy’s trailers as local landmarks. Customers signed get well cards left at the stands. There were visits at the hospital,a nd lots of good wishes.

“My wife and my girls . . . they were all worried about me.”

He was back to work probably a little sooner than he should have, but “it’s tough to drop it. There’s people looking for me.”

But getting back in the souvlaki saddle hasn’t been as easy as he thought it would be.

“It’s difficult,’ Cardabikis said. “A lot of people, they know me and they ask how I’m doing. They bring up the story again and I don’t like that.”

It’s hard to relive the terror and the pain, he said, but he “wants to be out to see all my customers, my friends, my people. I know they are looking for me.”

He talked about that maybe, if he’d had a couple of German shepherds at his headquarters that night, the attack wouldn’t have happened. “I’ve got to protect Sammy,” he said with a shy smile.

What’s more difficult, is knowing no one has been arrested. Police have found only dead ends, he said.

“They knew what they were doing,” he said about the robbers.

“But whatever goes around, comes around. One day, it’s going to come.”

Until then, London’s best known souvlaki man is determined to keep on cooking.

“I’m here. I’m going to be here. I’m not going to give up easy,” he said.

jsims@postmedia.com

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