A tribute to Maria Bartos

Behind a distinctive hospitality family from Rotterdam stood a woman who was far ahead of her time. In an era when female entrepreneurs were still rare, Maria Bartos built her career by opening a hair salon with her sister in the 1960s and later played a crucial behind-the-scenes role at a restaurant that would grow into one of the most renowned French restaurants in the Netherlands.

For her son Ian Bartos, co-founder of Springbay, she is not only his mother but also his first mentor in entrepreneurship. Her discipline, people skills, and vision laid the foundation for much of what followed.

This is a tribute to Maria Agatha Cornelia Bartos.

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Entrepreneurship was in her nature. Maria Bartos was one of the first hairstylists in Rotterdam. For her work, she travelled to Paris and other fashion capitals to discover the latest trends. But her life took a different turn when she met Ian’s father, Wolfgang Bartos, in 1967. Wolfgang worked at Riche Bar in Rotterdam Blijdorp, and with his charm, he quickly won Maria’s heart. Not long after, they became a team, not only in their private lives but also in business.

After the birth of her first child, Maria decided to give up her hair salon relatively quickly. “She mainly did this to support my father in his entrepreneurship,” Ian explains. According to Ian, his mother had to give up many things for the family and for the business: de Castellane, the French restaurant that she and Wolfgang would eventually start together in 1983. Supporting her family and the business always came first. “When my brother and I got older - I was about 13 and my brother 16 - we moved from a family home to Rotterdam. We started living above my parents’ restaurant. That was incredibly exciting. Suddenly, as kids, we were living in the big city. From that moment on, my mother became more and more involved in the business,” Ian recalls.

Pearl

While Ian’s father was known on the restaurant floor as the “rock ’n roll” personality, Maria was the one who kept the overview. She was the hostess, the strategist, and the PR force behind everything. Wolfgang entertained guests and commanded the dining room, and Maria made sure the marketing ran smoothly and that guest relationships were carefully maintained. “I’m almost certain it went like this,” Ian laughs. “A guest would walk in, my father would turn to my mother and ask: ‘Who is this again?’ My mother would then give a complete explanation of who that person was. And then my father would step in like a rock ’n roll performer and work the entire room.”

Maria was also incredibly disciplined, Ian explains. You could see it in every aspect of their business. “At Christmas, they would send hundreds, sometimes even thousands, of Christmas cards to guests. Every single one had to be signed by hand. My brother and I would sit there helping to write them. That was my mother’s discipline.”

According to Ian, she pushed things forward - always in a positive way - and guided Wolfgang in the direction where he could truly shine. “To use the cocktail shaker as an example: when you polish it, it starts to shine. Through friction comes brilliance. In that same way, my mother polished my father into a pearl.”

The combination of Wolfgang and Maria worked. Their restaurant grew into one of the most renowned French restaurants in the Netherlands and was even listed among the top 100 French restaurants in the country. Their establishment became a well-known name, largely thanks to the balance between their personalities.

Maria also played a major role in the development of the Witte de Withstraat in Rotterdam. At a time when the street had a very different reputation than it does today, she believed in the area's potential and helped transform it into a vibrant hospitality street.

Lessons

Perhaps even more important than her business achievements were the lessons Maria passed on to her son Ian. According to Ian, he inherited one very important trait from his mother: a strong “bullshit filter,” as he calls it. “In life, you meet all kinds of people. You really have to think carefully about who you do business with. My mother was very sharp about that.” Who deserves your trust? And who should you be careful with? That ability to read people later proved invaluable.

Maria was also the one who literally guided Ian through his first steps as an entrepreneur. She took him to the Dutch Chamber of Commerce to register his company and helped him bring structure into his business, especially into administration. Something which, Ian admits with a laugh, didn’t entirely succeed. “But the organisational discipline definitely came from her!”

Co-founder Jorgos also looks back on Maria with warm memories. He explains that she played a role in his and Ian's entrepreneurial journey. “The lessons Maria gave me at the start of our first company, before Springbay - called Barsupport, founded in 2002 - were that we should never speak as ‘I’ as a company, but always as ‘we’,” Jorgos recalls. “Maria said: ‘The two of you are the strength of Barsupport.’ She also emphasised the importance of communication between partners. ‘Keep talking to each other, even outside of work,’ she said.”

“And speaking of administration and bookkeeping,” Jorgos continues, “her advice was to always keep a red pen on your desk. With that pen, you would write the ledger account and the payment date directly on invoices.” “That red pen was meant only for bookkeeping. Whenever Ian wanted to quickly write something down and grabbed the red pen, I would warn him that he could only use it if he was also going to do the bookkeeping. He usually puts it back immediately,” Jorgos laughs. “Today, the red pen might be outdated in our digital world, but I still keep one on my desk for important notes”, Jorgos says.

Influence

Maria Bartos passed away on April 12, 2019, but her influence is still clearly felt today in the way Ian approaches entrepreneurship and in the values he carries with him.

For Ian, Maria was not only his mother but also his first mentor. And perhaps the most important entrepreneur he has ever known.