Pavlos' pride: Auburn diner views community as family (2024)

AUBURN — Chad Hayden calls it "conviviality of community."

That's what it feels like to eat at Pavlos' Restaurant in Auburn, Hayden told The Citizen during a visit there Monday.

Though it has "restaurant" in the name, Pavlos' is commonly referred to as a diner for reasons Hayden described.

"If I haven't come in for a few weeks, they'll remember I like lemon in my tea," he said. "The waitstaff is phenomenal."

Standing near the corner of York and North Streets for 44 years, Pavlos' also sounds like a diner. Upon walking through the door, customers are greeted by an almost musical collage ofspoons clinking saucers and coffee cups, silverware scraping plates and, perhaps most of all, conversation. Some takes place at tables, some at the long counter with ringed silver stools — another diner signature.

More than a restaurant, or a diner, Pavlos' feels like home to many of its customers. The wooden walls are covered by photos of community, and family. That family belongs to the diner's longtime owner and namesake, Pavlos Nestopoolos, who runs it with his wife, Alexandra, or "Sandy," and their daughter, Kelly Ambroggio. But the community is their family as well, they said.

“We make connections,” Ambroggio said. “We’re going to go to every table and check on (our customers). Everyone knows (my father) by his doing that.”

The Nestopoolos family even tries to remember the name of every customer. Some are easy because the diner served their parents, and sometimes their grandparents.

Customers Richard and Debbie Look can confirm that.

"My dad came here," Richard told The Citizen, "So we started."

Dollars and a dream

Nestopoolos, now 83, opened his diner in 1980, 14 years after he came to America from Greece. The rest of his family remained there.

While speaking to The Citizen, his back faced the diner's exposed kitchen area. Above the entrance hangs a large photo with a hillside view of his Greek hometown.

Despite having the opportunity to start a new chapter in his life, he didn’t arrive in Auburn with a completely blank slate. His uncle owned Poolo’s, a candy store on Genesee Street open from 1870 to 1972. Before helping his uncle with the family business, Nestopoolos’ first job in his new hometown was washing dishes at the Springside Inn in Fleming.

Eventually, he wanted to work for himself instead of others. He planned to open Pavlos' in a former two-apartment building — but not everyone saw the same potential.

“He went to get a bank loan and they asked where he was going to open the restaurant,” Sandy said. “They told him he was nuts (for opening on York Street).”

Nestopoolos played it safe by opening the diner with the main seating area. As the business grew, he renovated the back rooms one at a time.

The bank sent him flowers to congratulate him on the opening, but he sent them back.

One secret to the diner's early success was dollar bills with Nestopoolos' face instead of George Washington's. They were handed out to customers, particularly the truckers who frequented the diner in the '80s. But after a visit from the U.S. Treasury, the bills were taken out of circulation. The department confiscated all of them except at least one that remains in the family's possession.

In another unusual way of doing business, Nestopoolos would often take orders verbally from customers. He would cook and serve their food, and they would cash themselves out at an unlocked register.

“He was never short,” Sandy said.

Affordable and authentic

Pavlos' has always leaned on American cuisine. Nestopoolos said there wasn't enough of a Greek population in Auburn to serve ethnic fare like moussaka.

“It’s all new to them,” he told The Citizen on Monday at one of his diner’s tables in the Greek accent that has stayed with him for four decades.

When it opened, the diner boasted a 99-cent special with eggs, toast, home fries and coffee. The family continues to strive for affordability, with most items falling below $10 and many below $5.

Over the years, Nestopoolos introduced more of a Greek flair to the menu. He credited his mother and grandmother for the culinary inspiration.

The diner's omelets, for example, aren't the typical, folded-over egg blanket stuffed with ingredients. They're looser, held together by egg and cheese but not quite a scramble.

Pavlos' stays affordable, and authentic, without sacrificing quality, Sandy said. Much of the food is homemade. The turkey and ham is cooked in the kitchen, not sliced deli meat. The family is also flexible, having served Spam with eggs and cottage cheese omelets when requested by customers, as well as gluten-free options. Liver and onions is another big seller, Ambroggio added.

“We like to try new things,” Sandy said. "Sometimes people ask us for weird stuff."

For Dawn Molina, it's the Belgian waffles that draw her to the diner. They're never burnt, she told The Citizen, and she appreciates the homemade whipped cream on top.

"We were here yesterday," said Paul Bishop, who was dining with Molina on Monday, as he finished his eggs with a smile. They come to Pavlos' a few times a week, he continued.

Nestopoolos will eventually pass the beloved diner on down to Ambroggio, a former child counselor with Cayuga County. While she's in training, he said that he's in no hurry to hang up his apron.

“You retire, you die,” he said.