Barrie restaurant owner wins $7M in huge lottery win

Filippos Triantafillou and Evangelia Triantafillou (OLG)

A Barrie restaurant owner has won the lottery for the third time and this time, he and his wife are set for life.

The winning will just keep on going for Filippos Triantafillou and his wife Evangelia Triantafillou, as the couple has won OLG’s $1,000 a day for life with Daily Grand.

The Daily Grand prize is literally $1,000 a day for life or winners can request a lump sum of $7,000,000, which the couple has opted to do.

Being frequent players of the lottery has certainly paid off for these two.

The couple is raking in the money with their $100,010 Encore win in 2020 and their $430,000 Lottario prize in 2019.

• Barrie man celebrates second lottery win

“I almost forgot about this ticket! It was a normal day, and I was getting ready for a shift at the restaurant when I noticed it sitting in my bag,” Evangelia said while at the OLG Prize Centre in Toronto to collect their prize. “When I checked the winning numbers and saw they matched our ticket, my heart started racing. I kept looking back and forth between the ticket and the screen because I thought I had to be reading the numbers wrong. I remember thinking, ‘This can’t actually be happening — I think we just won big!’”

Filippos was equally excited.

“I was very emotional, excited, and shocked,” he said. “We both stood there feeling completely stunned and grateful.”

The couple, who plans to share their winnings with their children, called them one by one.

“Every single one of their reactions was priceless,” said Filippos. “Hearing the excitement in their voices is something we’ll never forget.”

Filippos is the owner of Fil’s Café, a restaurant and dining lounge in the Duckworth Plaza on the corner of Grove Street and Duckworth Street in Barrie.

A business that’s been in the family for decades filled with unique memorabilia and décor, has been running since 1983, when it was first established.

The Daily Grand is a game that can be played all across Canada and the top prize of $1,000 a day for life is required to have five matching numbers plus the Grand Number.

The winning ticket was purchased at Jay’s Variety on Duckworth Street in Barrie, the same location from their last winning ticket.