Aside from Mom’s roast beef and mashed potatoes, nothing says comfort food like your neighborhood diner, and we have our share of them in Saint Paul. But rather than having to pull up Google to find one, we’ve brought three of the city’s classic diners to you. So pull up a chair and grab a cup o’ joe, because these hot spots will warm your soul.
Capital View CafE
Glen and Mia Lucken have been in the dining industry for years. Mia’s father started the International Café in Saint Paul, and Glen worked everywhere from the Saint Paul Hotel to Macalester College. After the two were married, Mia says, “a friend of ours had a place across the street and let us know about this café that was for sale.” So they jumped on it, and in 1993, Capital View Café opened its doors.
According to Glen, the café had 20 seats when it opened. On one side was a video store and a consignment shop, on the other was a beauty salon. “I think we looked at it and there were just salt and pepper shakers on the tables,” he says. “I mean, none of the equipment worked in the kitchen.”
“To this day, I’m glad I did it, but I must have been crazy back in the day,” Glen recalls. He was in the navy and left a job with great benefits to start the café. “I had a really good job. We didn’t make any money for five years. It was a big risk,” he says.
“That’s kind of the American dream,” Mia adds.
Today, the café has about 185 seats and is known for its eclectic menu of American, breakfast, lunch and Mexican food. They also offer catering.
“People say to me, ‘What would you recommend?’ ” Mia says. “I have to narrow it down: ‘Do you want sweet? Do you want spicy? Do you want breakfast? Do you want lunch? Do you want Mexican?’ We offer a little something for everybody.”
The favorite is the Cajun breakfast; with meat, it’s $11.49, without $9.49. “You choose between four to five different kinds of meats,” Glen says, adding that hollandaise sauce finishes off the dish.
“The churro waffle, that’s become pretty popular,” Mia says. “It’s a homemade buttermilk waffle, and then they deep-fry it and put cinnamon sugar on it so it’s almost like a mini doughnut.” ($7.49) Or there’s the fritterwich sandwich: a basic egg breakfast sandwich, placed between two slices of their raspberry French toast, served with syrup and your choice of potato—which should be their seasoned American fries ($9.29).
With so many choices, and breakfast and lunch on the menu all day, Glen says, “Sometimes, we have people order fajitas at 7 in the morning.” And at Capital View, that is OK.
“People come here and we want them to feel comfortable, like it’s their home,” Mia says. “We have a lot of regular customers that have come in here over time. It’s been nice because we’ve had families that come with their kids who are now adults and have their own children.”
And “we’ve done all their catering,” Glen adds, “from first-year birthdays to graduations, weddings, everything. It’s neat.”
A comfortable atmosphere is a goal of the Luckens, whether the customer is a regular or former Sen. Norm Coleman. “They like to come in and be left alone,” Glen says. And, as season-ticket holders to the Wild, the Luckens have had their tickets personally delivered to the diner by Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Mikko Koivu and others.
But for this neighborhood spot, it’s not about the fame. For the Luckens, it’s about community.
Day by Day CafE
In 1975, Greg Ekbom opened Day by Day Café as a way to serve individuals in drug and alcohol recovery. A treatment center he attended needed someone to cater their meals; Ekbom stepped in and started the diner in a train car. In 1979, he closed shop, his daughter Gena says, adding that he was going to start just doing real estate, but then he bought a building with a Mexican restaurant on the main floor that had decided to close down. “Then he decided, ‘Well, I’ll reopen the restaurant right here,’ ” Gena Ekbom says. They reopened in 1980.
“I was born in ’78,” she says. “I’ve been here all my life.” She worked at the restaurant every summer in her teen years, and is slowly taking over operations. “I think that I always kind of knew that I wanted to do this.”
Since Greg owns the building, he’s been renovating and expanding over the years, going from a one-room diner to the establishment it is now, with a patio that’s been voted No. 1 on numerous lists.
“He built all these booths,” Gena says. “He built the library [dining room] from the ground up in ’96.” The shadowboxes that adorn the walls were also built by her father, and a previous manager painted the murals that reach the ceiling.
The menu has everything you want from a diner. A top hit is the Early Bird Special, where you get eggs, hash browns or American fries, bacon or sausage and toast, or eggs, pancakes or French toast, and sausage or bacon, all for $5.59 between 6 and 7 a.m., Monday-Friday. “I think they’d be mad” if we took that off the menu,” she says.
The menu doesn’t change often, but things have changed over the years. The newer gluten-free diets and food allergy issues have put gluten-free toast on their menu permanently.
And like many Saint Paul establishments, Day by Day has had its share of local celebrities stop in, such as Gov. Mark Dayton and former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak, along with some even more out-of-the-ordinary guests.
“We filmed the movie Wilson here last summer,” Gena says. The movie, starring Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern, scheduled to be released sometime in 2016, was filmed in the Twin Cities. “I was in the movie, and got to be in a scene with Woody Harrelson,” she says. “That was pretty cool.”
There are cool moments, but mostly it’s simply fun running it with family, and staff members who turn into family. “Hopefully,” Gena says, “the kids will run it one day.”
The Uptowner Café on Grand Dan Lallas worked at a breakfast restaurant in high school and became passionate about the fast-paced nature of the business. He went to the University of Wisconsin-Stout for restaurant management, graduated in 2005, worked for six months, then ventured off on his own to buy the Uptowner Café on Grand in 2006. Born and raised in Saint Paul, Lallas knew about the Uptowner.
“I thought it’d be a good opportunity to be a part of the community,” he says. And now, having owned and operated the restaurant for 10 years, Lallas has gotten the chance to see his clientele grow. “I’ve seen kids come in here when they were 4 or 5 years old with their parents, now coming in in high school.”
Those kids might have even had kids’ menu items named after them, though Lallas says he is starting to switch out those names, since those kids are no longer kids.
On the menu, the Cajun breakfast ($10.95) is the top seller. “A lot of people like the andouille sausage that comes with that,” he says. Another favorite is the Uptowner eggs Benedict ($11.25). “Instead of ham, it comes with grilled tomato slices and andouille sausage,” Lallas says, and of course it comes with the “world-famous crispy hash browns.”
“Really, people come here for our hash browns,” he adds.
But the pancakes, with a hint of cinnamon, might convince you to stray from the savory, and the house-made chili might persuade you to have lunch. And don’t forget the many omelets, including the Saint Paul omelet featuring mushrooms, tomatoes, andouille sausage and cheddar cheese.
“Our fresh ingredients and everything that’s made in-house is something that we really put utmost importance on,” he says. “And we get our bread from St. Agnes Baking Company [in Saint Paul] daily.”
The quality and freshness is probably what has local celebs Joe Mauer, Teddy Bridgewater, former police chief Bill Finney and Garrison Keillor dropping by for a bite. And “a lot of Wild players stop in,” Lallas says.
“We get all kinds of people,” says Lallas. “We have really great customers. We try to keep a family environment.”
Aside from Mom’s roast beef and mashed potatoes, nothing says comfort food like your neighborhood diner, and we have our share of them in Saint Paul. But rather than having to pull up Google to find one, we’ve brought three of the city’s classic diners to you. So pull up a chair and grab a cup o’ joe, because these hot spots will warm your soul.
Capital View Café
Glen and Mia Lucken have been in the dining industry for years. Mia’s father started the International Café in Saint Paul, and Glen worked everywhere from the Saint Paul Hotel to Macalester College. After the two were married, Mia says, “a friend of ours had a place across the street and let us know about this café that was for sale.” So they jumped on it, and in 1993, Capital View Café opened its doors.
According to Glen, the café had 20 seats when it opened. On one side was a video store and a consignment shop, on the other was a beauty salon. “I think we looked at it and there were just salt and pepper shakers on the tables,” he says. “I mean, none of the equipment worked in the kitchen.”
“To this day, I’m glad I did it, but I must have been crazy back in the day,” Glen recalls. He was in the navy and left a job with great benefits to start the café. “I had a really good job. We didn’t make any money for five years. It was a big risk,” he says.
“That’s kind of the American dream,” Mia adds.
Today, the café has about 185 seats and is known for its eclectic menu of American, breakfast, lunch and Mexican food. They also offer catering.
“People say to me, ‘What would you recommend?’ ” Mia says. “I have to narrow it down: ‘Do you want sweet? Do you want spicy? Do you want breakfast? Do you want lunch? Do you want Mexican?’ We offer a little something for everybody.”
The favorite is the Cajun breakfast; with meat, it’s $11.49, without $9.49. “You choose between four to five different kinds of meats,” Glen says, adding that hollandaise sauce finishes off the dish.
“The churro waffle, that’s become pretty popular,” Mia says. “It’s a homemade buttermilk waffle, and then they deep-fry it and put cinnamon sugar on it so it’s almost like a mini doughnut.” ($7.49) Or there’s the fritterwich sandwich: a basic egg breakfast sandwich, placed between two slices of their raspberry French toast, served with syrup and your choice of potato—which should be their seasoned American fries ($9.29).
With so many choices, and breakfast and lunch on the menu all day, Glen says, “Sometimes, we have people order fajitas at 7 in the morning.” And at Capital View, that is OK.
“People come here and we want them to feel comfortable, like it’s their home,” Mia says. “We have a lot of regular customers that have come in here over time. It’s been nice because we’ve had families that come with their kids who are now adults and have their own children.”
And “we’ve done all their catering,” Glen adds, “from first-year birthdays to graduations, weddings, everything. It’s neat.”
A comfortable atmosphere is a goal of the Luckens, whether the customer is a regular or former Sen. Norm Coleman. “They like to come in and be left alone,” Glen says. And, as season-ticket holders to the Wild, the Luckens have had their tickets personally delivered to the diner by Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Mikko Koivu and others.
But for this neighborhood spot, it’s not about the fame. For the Luckens, it’s about community.
Day by Day Café
In 1975, Greg Ekbom opened Day by Day Café as a way to serve individuals in drug and alcohol recovery. A treatment center he attended needed someone to cater their meals; Ekbom stepped in and started the diner in a train car. In 1979, he closed shop, his daughter Gena says, adding that he was going to start just doing real estate, but then he bought a building with a Mexican restaurant on the main floor that had decided to close down. “Then he decided, ‘Well, I’ll reopen the restaurant right here,’ ” Gena Ekbom says. They reopened in 1980.
“I was born in ’78,” she says. “I’ve been here all my life.” She worked at the restaurant every summer in her teen years, and is slowly taking over operations. “I think that I always kind of knew that I wanted to do this.”
Since Greg owns the building, he’s been renovating and expanding over the years, going from a one-room diner to the establishment it is now, with a patio that’s been voted No. 1 on numerous lists.
“He built all these booths,” Gena says. “He built the library [dining room] from the ground up in ’96.” The shadowboxes that adorn the walls were also built by her father, and a previous manager painted the murals that reach the ceiling.
The menu has everything you want from a diner. A top hit is the Early Bird Special, where you get eggs, hash browns or American fries, bacon or sausage and toast, or eggs, pancakes or French toast, and sausage or bacon, all for $5.59 between 6 and 7 a.m., Monday-Friday. “I think they’d be mad” if we took that off the menu,” she says.
The menu doesn’t change often, but things have changed over the years. The newer gluten-free diets and food allergy issues have put gluten-free toast on their menu permanently.
And like many Saint Paul establishments, Day by Day has had its share of local celebrities stop in, such as Gov. Mark Dayton and former Minneapolis mayor R.T. Rybak, along with some even more out-of-the-ordinary guests.
“We filmed the movie Wilson here last summer,” Gena says. The movie, starring Woody Harrelson and Laura Dern, scheduled to be released sometime in 2016, was filmed in the Twin Cities. “I was in the movie, and got to be in a scene with Woody Harrelson,” she says. “That was pretty cool.”
There are cool moments, but mostly it’s simply fun running it with family, and staff members who turn into family. “Hopefully,” Gena says, “the kids will run it one day.”
The Uptowner Café on Grand Dan Lallas worked at a breakfast restaurant in high school and became passionate about the fast-paced nature of the business. He went to the University of Wisconsin-Stout for restaurant management, graduated in 2005, worked for six months, then ventured off on his own to buy the Uptowner Café on Grand in 2006. Born and raised in Saint Paul, Lallas knew about the Uptowner.
“I thought it’d be a good opportunity to be a part of the community,” he says. And now, having owned and operated the restaurant for 10 years, Lallas has gotten the chance to see his clientele grow. “I’ve seen kids come in here when they were 4 or 5 years old with their parents, now coming in in high school.”
Those kids might have even had kids’ menu items named after them, though Lallas says he is starting to switch out those names, since those kids are no longer kids.
On the menu, the Cajun breakfast ($10.95) is the top seller. “A lot of people like the andouille sausage that comes with that,” he says. Another favorite is the Uptowner eggs Benedict ($11.25). “Instead of ham, it comes with grilled tomato slices and andouille sausage,” Lallas says, and of course it comes with the “world-famous crispy hash browns.”
“Really, people come here for our hash browns,” he adds.
But the pancakes, with a hint of cinnamon, might convince you to stray from the savory, and the house-made chili might persuade you to have lunch. And don’t forget the many omelets, including the Saint Paul omelet featuring mushrooms, tomatoes, andouille sausage and cheddar cheese.
“Our fresh ingredients and everything that’s made in-house is something that we really put utmost importance on,” he says. “And we get our bread from St. Agnes Baking Company [in Saint Paul] daily.”
The quality and freshness is probably what has local celebs Joe Mauer, Teddy Bridgewater, former police chief Bill Finney and Garrison Keillor dropping by for a bite. And “a lot of Wild players stop in,” Lallas says.
“We get all kinds of people,” says Lallas. “We have really great customers. We try to keep a family environment.”
