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Photos by Beth Young
One of the last vestiges of small-town life, John Papas Café is tucked into a neat corner of the Reutershan parking lot behind the eye-popping opportunities for designer shopping on East Hampton’s Main Street.
Mr. Papas, who opened the restaurant in 1992 after a 10-year stint running Estia’s restaurant in Amagansett and Estia’s Little Kitchen on the Bridgehampton Turnpike, wouldn’t have it any other way.
“My backbone is the local people. That’s how I survived all those years,” he said recently over coffee in a cosy corner booth at the small dining spot. “When I first opened, it was me and one dishwasher. I was handling breakfast, lunch and dinner, all the paperwork and cleaning. It was my way of surviving. I can’t do that any more. I’ve paid my dues.”
Mr. Papas began his career in the restaurant business as a dishwasher at The Candy Kitchen in Bridgehampton. He had been a graphic designer in Greece, but had trouble finding work in his chosen field because he did not speak English well at the time. After he and his cousins sold Estia’s in Amagansett in the early 1990s, he heard that the prime corner location in East Hampton Village was available, and immediately moved in with a set of comfortable booths and simple green-shaded lamps. The decor hasn’t changed since then.
“I get criticized sometimes for not changing it, but if Alec Baldwin loves it the way it is, that’s the way it’s going to be,” he said.
The original menu was comprised of traditional diner fare, but Mr. Papas has continued to add to the selections as years have gone on.
“It’s a surprise to everyone how a small kitchen can produce so many things,” he said. “A lot of regular customers want their own thing, something specific, and we do it. I have customers who come here three times a day, every day except Wednesday when we close at three.”
The menu includes 12 different varieties of salads, including a Greek salad ($10), which Mr. Papas touts for its special unique dressing; a baked potato and broccoli salad with tomato, red onion and Greek dressing ($10); a spinach salad ($9); and a country Greek salad in season ($11).
The restaurant is also well known for its Greek specialties, including moussaka with a small Greek salad and garlic bread ($18); a spinach pie with a small Greek salad and garlic bread ($15); and chicken or pork souvlaki with lettuce, tomato and onion wrapped in pita bread with french fries and homemade tzatziki sauce ($12).
The café opens at 6 a.m. every day, and does a brisk breakfast business, with a full complement of omelettes, from the Spanish omelette with a side of salsa ($10) and the California, with sliced avocados and Swiss cheese ($11) to the Parthenon, with sautéed onions, mushrooms, feta cheese, tomato and calamata olives for $13. The kitchen also turns out omelettes to order. Pancakes and French toast are $7 and Belgian waffles can be ordered with syrup and powdered sugar for $8 or with fresh fruit and cream for $11.
The cafe also does a brisk business in coffee ($1.75) for a regular crowd that gathers every morning for a simple helping of caffeine and conversation.
“Some people take us as a small coffee shop until they come for dinner, and then it’s like a secret treasure,” said Mr. Papas.
Every night, the restaurant’s chef, Klever Lopes, picks six or seven specials to highlight for dinner.
Among the more popular recent specials are pan seared striped bass with mushrooms in scampi sauce with sautéed spinach for $22.95, char grilled lamb chops in a peppercorn sauce for $20.95, and pork enchiladas with rice and beans for $17.95. All specials come with a choice of soup or salad and a choice of starches and vegetables.
John Papas Café also prides itself on being a family-friendly restaurant, and the kids menu includes 10 items. Among them are a hamburger, chicken fingers, and pizza for $9 and a grilled cheese sandwich for $8.50. Most kids meals include french fries and juice or soda.
John Papas Cafe usually serves until about 9 p.m., but Mr. Papas said that depends on how business has been.
“If I have a full store I’m not going to close at 9, but my customers are mostly local people who come here early and then go to bed,” he said.
John Papas also has a second seasonal restaurant, John Papas Cafe II, at the Royal Atlantic Beach Resorts on Emerson Avenue in Montauk. That restaurant, which just closed for the winter after its fifth season, has an identical menu to the East Hampton flagship café.
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