John's Café

• Forgetting that Saturday was a holiday and many restaurants were closed, we got desperate. So, we drove along Greenville Avenue until we happened upon what I can only describe as an oasis on asphalt: John's Cafe. Open. [more]

• From early breakfast to late lunch, John's Café doesn't pretend to be anything but a neighborhood diner serving basic, filling meals with a few Greek offerings mixed in. There's no pomp or circumstance and no bullshit. John's is a quick, bustling grub hub happily settled on Lowest Greenville Avenue with regulars at the common table discussing city goings-on, trading newspaper sections and comparing meal notes. Breakfast is the shining star at the not-so-greasy spoon, but at any time of day this family diner sticks to simple dishes that feel like home. [more]

• Saturday morning at John's Café is a longtime tradition to nearly everyone in Dallas with basic motor functions. But it still deserves recognition from our panel of expert imbibers, who eschew Mueslix (doesn't mix well with a Crown and Coke aftertaste) for large helpings of eggs and sausage. The menu-board here bluntly advertises "omelets with meat" (why not just call it "animal carcass" and be done?), but what you really want is the breakfast special (a biscuit, sausage or bacon, eggs, and grits) or pancakes. It's the kind of place where hangover victims can amicably share space with sober families and older couples while poking over the morning paper.

• For a third of a century John's Café on Greenville Avenue was one of those chipped mug of coffee places you could go on a Sunday morning and get your feet planted squarely back on planet Earth for the week to come. Then two years ago they deep-sixed it for a bank. Story of our life. But now John's is back from the grave, this time deeper on Greenville, almost at the corner of Ross, and many of the old familiar faces are gathering again for coffee, Greek salad and one of the best big burgers in town. The new location hits it just right, clean and plain, lean and mean—the way Old East Dallas likes it.

• Owner John Spyropoulos closed his original Greenville Avenue location in late 2005, but that’s the only thing that’s different. The kitchen at this new location still turns out great breakfasts and groovy burgers.

Awards and Recognition