“Everything OK?” asks Tony Hatoum.
It was nearly closing time at John’s Diner on Tuesday afternoon and Hatoum, a waiter there all of his adult life, was making yet another stop at a booth to ask two regulars if they were pleased with the food and service.
Hatoum, 55, has worked at his family’s eatery on Wellington Street West since he was in public school. Do the math and you’ll find that he could conceivably have asked “Everything OK?” half a million times at John’s as he serves customers their trusty breakfast specials and club sandwiches in an atmosphere that feels as close to home as a diner can get.
But the Hatoum family’s five-decade-long run at John’s Diner is to end Friday when the diner will close.
Hatoum, his younger brother Peter, sisters Mary-Ann and Suzy, and of course their 87-year-old father John are OK with that.
“M
y dad supports us 100 per cent. He always has,” says Tony. “
He realizes that everything has a cycle and we’ve met our cycle.”
The Hatoums aren’t closing because they can’t pay the rent. For almost the last three decades, they’ve owned the building that they initially leased when John’s opened in 1974.
It’s not because John’s lacks customers. “We have an extremely successful business,” says Hatoum.
“We’re stepping off the wheel. We’re going off on a high note,” he says. “We’re happy and we’re just happy to sign off and smell the roses.”
While the Hatoums are shutting the diner on their own terms, its closure is still a blow of sorts to the neighbourhood, says Aron Slipacoff, executive director of the Wellington West BIA.
John’s, says Slipacoff, is “like a time capsule of people and memories…. you’re not just opening a door to a restaurant.
“That kind of loss makes me sad. It’s like losing a friend, a little bit.”
While John Hatoum says he’s retired, he still spends four hours a day at the diner, says Tony. On Tuesday, the senior Hatoum spent some time washing dishes.
“We like being hands-on and not managers,” says Tony. “We’re content being the guy serving, the cooks, having our sleeves rolled up and working.”
He said it was “imperative” that Ottawa and Wellington Street West know how grateful his father is for their business and good company. “His famous line is, ‘We couldn’t do it without you,’” says Tony.
John Hatoum came to Ottawa from Lebanon as a teenager, in 1957. He started working in a Lebanese-owned diner, but knew he wanted to have his own business someday, his son says.
“He realized that if he worked hard and persevered, he would achieve his goals,” says his son.
“It’s been an amazing experience to be able to work with your family, in a community like this that has embraced us so much,” he adds.
Tony says he lives 100 metres from the diner, while his father lives a kilometre away. “You’re part of a neighbourhood… If you want to be a part of something, you immerse yourself in it.”
At its busiest, a decade ago, John’s turned over its 55 seats eight or 10 times on a Saturday, he says. “The seats weren’t getting cold all day,” he says.
What’s more, most customers were familiar faces.
“Eighty per cent I can call friends and I know them by name,” says Tony. “I feel like our restaurant has woven itself into the fibre of the community. It’s often referred to as the community kitchen table. It’s where people live out their highs and lows, where business people make deals, where people who are having a hard time come and find comfort in a meal.”
But the COVID-19 pandemic was “an awakening … of life, of free time, of what else was out there,” says Tony. He realized there was more to life than working 11 hours a day, five or six days a week.
The diner cut back on its hours of business, opening just five days instead of six and closing before dinner. “We got a little better work-life balance,” says Tony.
His daughter doesn’t want to take over the diner and his brother’s children are too young, he says.
“We’re going to chill out. We’re going to learn how to relax a little a bit. We’re still young enough to chase some of our dreams,” he says.
Customer Anne Finlayson says she began eating at John’s in the late 1980s, easily once a week, when she lived less than a block away and Wellington West was just car dealerships, car repair shops and gas stations.
“
The food was great,” says Finlayson.
Her father-in-law, she says, had pea soup at John’s every Friday for lunch. Her whole family would go for dinner on Friday nights and “h
alf of the street would show up as well and it was a lovely welcoming spot, where kids did not need to stay in their chairs.”
She recalls that the Hatoums would let her daughter Zoe Meil punch in her order on the cash register when she was young. On Tuesday, Finlayson and Meil, now 27, went back to John’s to reminisce and wish the Hatoums well.
A new restaurant is to replace John’s. All Tony will say is that it will be a casual eatery and that “they’ve said they want to keep some nostalgia from our place.”
John’s Quick Lunch Pea Soup
The Citizen’s late food editor Ron Eade and food writer Gay Cook were fans of the pea soup at John’s Diner, and Eade published its recipe in a March 2003 article. Here it is:
Makes 6 cups (1.5 L)
– 3/4 pound (340 g) dried whole yellow peas (not split peas)
– 1/4 pound (114 g) white navy beans
– 1 ham hock
– 8 cups (2 L) cold water
– 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
– 1 stalk celery, diced
– 1 medium onion, diced
– 2 cloves garlic, minced
– 3 bay leaves
– Pinch each, salt and pepper
1. Pick over dried peas, beans and remove discoloured and imperfect ones. In a large mixing bowl, soak peas and beans overnight in cold water; drain and rinse.
2. Return soaked peas and beans to large pot. Add ham hock and
8 cups (2 L) cold water, and simmer on medium-low heat 1 hour to 11/2 hours. Add carrot, celery, onion, garlic, bay leaves and simmer
1 hour longer, or until all vegetables are tender.
3. Remove ham hock; discard bone and fat. Dice the meat and return to soup. Simmer to desired consistency (or add water if necessary) and season to taste with salt, pepper just before serving.
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