Nothing relieves a midweek slump like dinner-breakfast. So one Thursday in February, I call my husband up with the promise of pancakes and we head west to Cheviot.
Santorini Family Restaurant has been serving Greek diner classics on Harrison Avenue for decades. The hungry West Side crowd can enjoy gyros, omelets, pizza, waffles, 3 Ways and other appropriate culinary delights here. It’s easy to find a table at 10:30 a.m. on a Thursday, but we opt for the counter anyway. From there, we can see the gyro meat swirling enticingly through the kitchen window.
A woman with freshly manicured purple nails brings us water and menus. I scan the extensive selection. There are Greek appetizers, coneys and chili, salads and pizza, sandwiches and double deckers, eggs, dinner plates and a corner called “The Fluffy Stuff” where all the pancakes, French toast and waffles are found. After a slight panic (confession: menus make me indecisive!) and a quick consultation with our waiter, we place an order.
As we wait, we can hear the quiet hum of the place all around us. The waiters are leaning on the counter in their spare time, hands in their apron pockets, chatting to a regular who is eating a plate of goetta and eggs at the counter next to us. Whenever a customer leaves, they call out a friendly “Bye, guys!” without hesitation.
It takes me three visits before I feel like I know the menu. I try a gyro, a gyro omelet, most of the Greek appetizers, a stack of blueberry pancakes, baklava, a Greek salad, creamy and peppery biscuits and gravy, and a cup of coffee with cream. Nothing disappoints, but the highlights for me were the gyro meat and the spanakopita. Ordering classic Greek dishes in the comfort of a neighborhood diner is a pleasure that is not to be taken for granted. My omelet comes with a side of creamy tzatziki, which I now fear I need every time I eat scrambled eggs. I’ve heard the gyro pizza is also remarkable, but that will have to wait until the fourth visit.
Photo: Lydia Schembre
A selection of dishes from Santorini Family Restaurant
I order biscuits and gravy with a coffee on a busy Sunday morning. From my seat at the counter, I watch the servers work together, calmly coordinating who takes which table as customers come and go in the late morning rush. There’s a third waitress in the room, a small brunette woman with a sweet smile and sharp eyes. She’s the one who takes my order (“Biscuits and gravy? Easy!”) and offers me more coffee at regular intervals.
After I finish eating, I decide to get curious and approach an older man who is clearing tables and chatting with customers. His friendly, relaxed demeanor makes me think he might be the owner, but he says I need to speak to Dorie. Dorie Hill, my waitress acquaintance.
Hill tells me she has worked at Santorini since 2005, just a year after the restaurant took on its current name. The place has been owned and run by her extended family since the 1970s, she says, and her parents George and Gina Denas took over 20 years ago. She grew up in Cheviot and is happy here.
“I like that it’s a small town,” she says. “I like that better than a big city. I was in New York and I didn’t like it. Not at all, not for me.”
Santorini was like a second home.
“I basically live here,” she tells me.
For many people, diners become a third place – a place that feels like home but isn’t. It’s a way to get out of the house and into the world, but the predictable meals and familiar faces can also be comforting.
Take, for example, Jennie and Teresa, two friends who let me in for a quick chat at the end of their breakfast. The two met at the Westwood branch of the library, where Teresa used to work.
“I was a regular and liked her sense of humor,” says Jennie. “And we just became friends.”
Now Santorini is their weekly hangout, the home base of their friendship. Jennie has been coming here for 10 years, Teresa for 15, and they have long developed a fun, sarcastic relationship with the staff. (Hill jokingly waves her finger as she passes, telling them to be good.)
“This is like our Bottom up”, says Jennie.
“You just feel like you’re part of the family,” Teresa adds. “You’re greeted with a smile.”
At another table, a couple waits for their French toast and bacon and chats with a staff member. I introduce myself to the couple, Tim and Cathy, who are friends with the owner’s family. Tim says this relationship is why they keep coming back.
“And the food!” laughs Cathy.
A restaurant like this is the kind of place that transcends trends and generations. There are older men in suit jackets, perhaps eating after church, and tattooed millennials in band shirts and pants. Two younger men watch sports together on their phones while eating strawberry waffles at the counter, and a family laughs loudly at a crowded table.
Photo: Lydia Schembre
Writer Katrina Eresman sits at one of the stalls in Santorini
“Some (of the regulars) were kids who came with their grandparents, and now they come with their kids,” Hill says.
From the counter, I watch the various guests step up to the cash register one by one and hand over their bills while a waiter cashes them. Half the time they are sent off with a “see you next week” from the crew behind the counter or a wave goodbye from someone in the kitchen.
I finish my cup and politely decline another offer from Hill for a refill. It was good coffee, fresh and uncomplicated. Soon someone will clear the ivory cup and saucer from my place and take it away to be washed and dried. After that it will join the army of clean dishes ready for the next morning.
Santorini Family Restaurant, 3414 Harrison Ave., Cheviot. More information: facebook.com.
This story appears in the June 26 print edition of CityBeat.
