The Panos Diner closes its doors after 38 years
The Panos Diner, an icon in downtown dining located at 422 Milam St., shut its doors for the last time April 19. The diner was opened by two brothers, Andrew and Chris Panos, in 1975, and together with their respective wives and children, the brothers operated the restaurant for the last 38 years.
Television crews and media descended on the diner April 19 to cover the event, along with a representative of Shreveport Mayor Cedric Glover’s office, who delivered a proclamation naming the day as “Andrew and Chris Panos Day.” Along with a larger crowd than usual, some regulars came in to offer their congratulations to the brothers and have their final fill of the Panoses’ home cooking.
“One of the first times I came here was for breakfast on a Saturday,” said Chris Kirkley, an employee with the downtown library who had come to the diner for 10 years.
“There weren’t a lot of places to eat then, but they’d stay open until 11 a.m. on the weekend. I’d forgotten that they only take cash, and I’d gone and gotten this big breakfast, and I didn’t have any money. The cashier said, ‘Just bring it on Monday.’ They made a loyal customer that day. This place is an institution. We’ll all miss it.”
In fact, even as times changed and a large majority of people replaced the hard cash in their wallets with hard plastic, the brothers stuck to their tried-and-true methods. On Friday, a sign on the cash register still read, “Sorry, we do not accept debit or credit cards.”
For most of their customers, that was just part of the charm.
The brothers came to Shreveport from Amblohory, Greece, a few years after World War II in 1951, when their mother sent them to live with their uncle in America so they could have a better life.
The boys enrolled at Barrett Grammar School and Hamilton Terrace, where they taught themselves English. They soon decided to work in their uncle’s restaurant, the Airport Drive Café, where language wouldn’t be a barrier.
They were drafted for military service after high school, then returned to Shreveport to open a series of restaurants and drive-ins, sometimes running two at a time, including one on King’s Highway in the 1950s, Cottage Grill and another called Poboy Grill.
They finally sold everything and opened Panos Diner in 1975.
As for the building, it has been sold and is scheduled to become a section of amenities, which may include a fitness club, pool and café, for a new section of upscale market-rate apartments, said Liz Swaine, executive director of the Downtown Development Authority.
“A developer out of Monroe had already purchased the Johnson Building in the same block, and they were interested in the Panos building because they needed that extra footprint to enable them to spread out and build the amenities. The lobby in the Johnson Building isn’t large enough, and much of the first floor is taken up by mechanicals,” Swaine said.
“This was a perfect opportunity for everyone.”
Still, the building leaves behind a memorable past for everyone.
“It feels terrible to close,” said Chris. “We’ve been here for almost 40 years, and now it’s come to an end.”
“You know, Father Time waits for no one,” Andrew added. “We have to shut it down. I didn’t think I’d be doing this at my age. We’re in our late 70s. We haven’t had vacation in 20 years. We were open six days a week and every Sunday. We started the day at 4:30 a.m. and wouldn’t get home until night.”
So what was the most memorable day at the restaurant?
“All of them,” Andrew answers. “We had wonderful customers. We treated them like family, too, because they were. People would ask us, ‘why are you so successful?’ I would say, ‘if you treat people right and keep your prices low, then people come back.’ Everybody who came in here left dirt on the floor, and then more people came in because of that. That’s why we stayed busy.”
The sign outside the diner on the last day read, “Thanks to you for 38 years! Our last day of operation will be Friday. We deeply appreciate your patronage. God Bless!” – Eric Lincoln
