1 of 13
At night, Dave’s modest sign doesn’t stand out, but you’ll find the diner at 5313 S. Lindbergh, in a small strip mall near the Olive Garden restaurant.
2 of 13
The diner showcases art from Lindbergh high school students on its walls.
3 of 13
The jukebox doesn’t get much play, but Dave likes the vintage look and keeps it next to the vintage coat rack.
The jukebox doesn’t get much play, but Dave likes the vintage look and keeps it next to the vintage coat rack.
4 of 13
Crispy American fries, perfect over easy egg and sausage patties.
5 of 13
A shiny row of stools, swivel ready, cushy soft. Rolf says they need to be replaced every ten to fifteen years.
6 of 13
Janie Sederis and Doug Huelsman
7 of 13
Milk shakes are made the old fashioned way at Dave’s: Here, Janie Sederis pours milk into a metal beaker, hand-dips vanilla ice cream into the milk, then whirls it under the shake machine, moving the beaker up and down. She pours it into the glass and places the still half-full shaker in front of the customer. Two spoons, but still a lot of vanilla shake to handle.
8 of 13
9 of 13
10 of 13
The beautiful early morning light coming in the windows.
11 of 13
Hamburger steak with grilled onions, mushrooms and three sides, the lunch special on the Tuesday we visited.
12 of 13
Owner Dave Rolf, with a bacon cheeseburger.
13 of 13
A close up of that cheeseburger.
At Dave’s Diner the American fries and hash browns don’t come out of a bag. Owner Dave Rolf insists on serving real potatoes. Omelets come to the table hot, fat and full. When sunny side and over-easy eggs hit the grill, the yolks sit up high and tight, fresh as can be. “We use a lot of eggs,” one of the servers explained. “They don’t have a chance to get old.”
Kenrick’s best bacon crisps flat under the press and the toaster pops out white, rye, wheat, and Texas toast in staccato bursts. According to waitress Janie Sederes, a 12-year veteran of the night shift, older diners who come in when the bars close favor slingers -- eggs, potatoes, meat and onions covered with chili. The younger set prefers the yin-yang version, half white sausage gravy, the other half chili. Non-conformists order the slammer, a pale cousin of the slinger with only white sausage gravy covering the subject.
Breakfast is served seven days a week, 24-hours a day. Sundays, the counter and the tables fill to capacity. Wait staffers negotiate the skinny spaces in between tables with uncommon grace. Sit at the counter and you’ll see the cook work with an amazing economy of moves. Ditto for his steady calm in the middle of the maelstrom, a flurry of efficiently coded orders the only map. On Saturdays and Sundays, Dave himself cooks during the rush.
We caught up with him at 5:30 on a Saturday morning over the Fourth of July weekend. Doug Huelsman and Janie Sederes, the Friday night crew, told us early weekend mornings were the best times to find Rolf at the diner.
He worked the grill solo that Saturday morning in the early hours, paper hat on his head, a clean white apron over his Dave’s diner shirt; waiter, cook and cleanup crew for four or five Saturday early birds, all men. The peachy-gold early morning light broke the front wall of the diner and casts box-like patterns on the wall, shadows from window mullions and signs.
The night before, from inside the diner, the glass front windows multiplied white rectangles of light into the night’s infinity. How different the place is at night. The diner’s simple sign, red letters on a white background, holds its own against the red and blue overkill of the payday-payday-payday loan office, the paintball store and the backlit golden letters of the Sunshine Daydreams head shop.
“I can talk with you on Tuesday,” he said that Saturday morning. “Here. About 12:30.”
Here’s the story.
Dave Rolf’s worked in diners his whole life. He started washing dishes at the Eat-Rite Diner on South Lindbergh when he was in his teens. He liked the work, the customers and the day-to-night rhythm of a place that never closes. Waiter, janitor, maintenance man, short-order cook and manager – Rolf worked it all. He learned purchasing, inventory control, employee relations and customer service. Someday, he hoped to own a diner. He wasn’t sure it was possible on a short order cook’s wages.
But it was.
In 2010, a friend told Rolf the Jeffco Diner in Arnold was for sale. The owner had died and no one in the family wanted the business. “I pulled it off somehow, bought it from the estate and renamed it Chris’s Jeffco Diner after my friend. That way, I could just add ‘Chris’s’ to the old sign and save money. I had to watch what I spent.”
In 2011, L.B. Powers sold the Eat-Rite diner on Lindbergh. The buyer was the man who once washed dishes there as a teen: he renamed it Dave’s Diner. The next year, Rolf founded a second Dave’s Diner, this one in High Ridge.
That's three diners in three years--not bad "on a short order cook's wages."
In addition to breakfast, here’s what's in store at both Dave’s and at Chris’s Jeffco. Daily specials and soups. Diner burgers meaty and hot on buttery grilled buns from Fazio’s Bakery. Dave’s crew cooks and slices roast beef and corned beef in house. They make the pulled pork, too. Other customer favorites include the Philly steak and classic BLT sandwiches.
Round out your meal and your waistline with classic diner desserts like whole milk and hand-dipped ice cream shakes and malts, available in chocolate and vanilla. You can have your sundae any way you like as long as it’s chocolate.
Sit at the counter. Play a tune on the jukebox. It only looks vintage. Inside, it’s cds all the way. “People don’t play the jukebox like they used to,” Rolf says. “They come in with earplugs and I-Pods. No public phone any more, either. We have wifi, though most of our customers don’t use it.”
Like his customers, Dave isn’t much into the internet, Facebook or web pages. “One of our managers is working on that,” he says.
On Tuesday, just after noon, waitress/cook Michele Morgan and her daughter Angie Davis rolled silverware as I waited for Dave. We talked. Morgan’s worked for Rolf on-and-off for sixteen years. Her daughter Angie started as a teen-ager, peeling potatoes and washing dishes. They kept their jobs because Rolf purchased the diner.
“Dave had worked for L.B. [Powers] for so long we just assumed he would take it over," Michele Morgan said. "Most everybody who comes in is a regular. Dave knows them all. When we don’t know somebody, they usually come in saying ‘Our friends, our family – either one – told us ‘you should go to Dave’s.’ That’s how it’s always been. Come to Dave’s.”
Dave’s Diner
5313 S. Lindbergh
Phone: 314-842-1514
No Website
==
Chris’s JeffCo Diner
3874 Jeffco Blvd.
636-467-9300
Website under construction: http://www.chrissjeffcodiner.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisJeffcoDiner
==
Dave’s Diner High Ridge
2823 High Ridge Blvd.
636-671-7249
==
All Diners: Open 24 hours a day, seven days a week
