Thursday, January 02, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Mercury

Where everyone knows your name

Small, family-owned diners thrive despite stiff competition from casinos, chains

By Larry Wills

In a town knee-deep in casino buffets and fast food chains, there still is some home cooking out there. Typically, it's tucked away in older neighborhoods, in family-owned restaurants that enjoy fierce loyalty among patrons. Three such restaurants thrive on the near-northwest side of Las Vegas--Lou's Family Diner, the Skillet Café and the Sunshine Café.

"I have people who have come here for four generations," says Louise Lauber of Lou's Diner.

Her restaurant at 431 S. Decatur Blvd. is packed with regular customers on weekends, the same faces who wouldn't go anywhere else. "It's a place where everybody knows your name. In some families, people have grown up and had their own families," she says of her customers.

Ervin Jensen's been a longtime regular at Lou's because he just likes the place. "It's damned easy to find a place to park, rather than going to a casino," the 45-year Las Vegas resident says. "Everyone is friendly and nice and the food is good."

Jensen also enjoys the relaxed banter with the restaurant staff. "They call me trouble," the 79-year-old says, laughing. "I don't think you can find a better place in town."

That's the same story you hear just a few blocks away at the Sunshine Café, 1581 N. Decatur, nearly hidden from view in a small shopping center at Vegas Drive. Maya Khazatsky and her husband, Serge, for a year have maintained the café's eight-year-old tradition as a neighborhood attraction.

"The restaurant is hard to see from the road," she says, "so a lot of our business is by word of mouth."

And that word is friendliness. "When they know you by name, they will sit down and talk to you."

Khazatsky says her clientele includes Gov. Kenny Guinn, area professionals and less-than-urbane residents. "We have business people and cowboys come in here," she says, pointing to spots of dried mud under one table. "They're real cowboys."

Further south, Steve Maynard's been running the Skillet Café at 3923 W. Charleston Blvd. for about 15 months and has noticed a long-term loyalty among customers.

"We have customers who have been faithful for 30 years. Places like these need to be family owned. It makes people with their families feel comfortable." Maynard's regulars include Sheriff Jerry Keller and District Judge Donald Mosley.

Maynard's business survived two car crashes in late November that left the west side of the building in a shambles. But he's rebuilding and hopes to be back to normal soon. He says the accidents haven't hurt his business as much as he originally feared, since the customers just keep coming.

Why are all these people shunning heavily advertised chains and casinos?

It's the food.

The three restaurants feature meals made from scratch. And they have generous lunch specials, most of which are traditional Americana--chicken and dumplings, grits, meat loaf and legendary soups. "If there's a homemade meal somebody wants, we'll put it on for them as a special," Lauber says.

"We have fresh soups every day, baked biscuits and gravies," Khazatsky says. "People come here to eat a meal that's better than home." Her coffee shop won the Review-Journal's Best of Las Vegas award last year. "In other places, the food is thin, overdone and greasy," she says.

The Skillet also bucks the fast-food trend. "We feature homemade specials and soups made from scratch, nothing frozen," Maynard says. "We have the best breakfast in town."

And don't forget the atmosphere. Each restaurant has a unique decor that gives it an individual personality. Lou's Diner is decorated with Western paintings--Louise's husband, Jim, is a collector--and decorations for every holiday, including battery-powered stuffed animals that sing.

The Sunshine Café resembles a small-town café, cozy with landscapes and nostalgic paintings on the walls and lots of knickknacks.

The Skillet's walls are covered with old movie promotions and advertisements dating to the 1940s. There are Howdy Doody Fudge Bar and Sun Maid Raisins ads and an old Las Vegas board game. Maynard installed his Coca-Cola collection and a customer brought in a Lustre Creme Shampoo ad featuring Marilyn Monroe.

Folk wisdom, a staple of small-town America, still thrives. A Lou's Diner sign proclaims, "Thou shall not whine." At the Sunshine Café, customers are reminded that, "Tipping is not a city in China."

The restaurants are more than places to eat. They are unofficial community centers, gathering places for friends and family and an occasional business meeting, away from the crowds and the hectic food factories. And that's in part because the customers know who runs the place and they are comfortable with the people.

Maynard runs his restaurant with a staff consisting of two nieces, a nephew, a sister-in-law and a longtime waitress.

Lauber's staff includes Diane Sisul, a 14-year waitress who predates the new owner by eight years. "I was just a baby when I started," she says, laughing.

Khazatsky and her husband do the lion's share of the work at the Sunshine Café.

Lauber even throws a Christmas party for her customers, with candy canes, a Santa and a buffet. Donated toys are given to needy kids. "This year we adopted two families with eight kids," she says.

Khazatsky keeps her business open on holidays as a refuge for the lonely. "Some elderly people have no families and no place else to go," she says. "Some people are starved for attention."

But she concedes that home-grown restaurants may be a thing of the past. "I've been told we're a dying breed. There's not a lot of us here."

Not so, says Van Heffner, president of the Nevada Restaurant Association.

"A lot of these restaurants are strong," he says. "It is the emerging market. We're a huge metropolitan area now and people are coming back to the neighborhoods. They stop by where the owners are friends. Often, patrons are considered part of that restaurant's family."

Part of the hometown restaurants' appeal, he says, is because of personal relationships. "Chains often have revolving managers with little continuity of customer relationship."

"It's a real niche they supply," he says of family businesses. "People want to feel comfortable."