Sophia F. Gottfried

Staff Writer, @sophiafgott

As the snow, sleet and ice pile up today, odds are that most local restaurants have closed up shop, their workers and customers hunkered down at home with blankets, hot chocolate and a fridge full of groceries to outlast the storm.



Not North Jersey diners.

Like the postal service, our signature restaurants don't let snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night keep them from serving their signature Taylor ham, egg and cheese sandwiches.

“We’re here for you,” says Jim Gremanis, who owns the Colonial Diner in Lyndhurst, which has remained open for business through the worst of storms, even Hurricane Sandy.

The same could be said for Fairmount Eats in Hackensack. Owner Nick Stathatos can only remember closing for a storm once, and even then, the diner — which serves many Hackensack University Medical Center and Bergen County Courthouse workers — only closed a few hours early.

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Making it to work in the storm

Of course diner owners have to make adjustments during snowstorms. Stathatos says Fairmount Eats usually guarantees a delivery time of 30 minutes or less, but during a blizzard, “it gets there when it gets there."

“I tell my guys to drive slowly and carefully,” he says. He also uses the restaurant’s two delivery vehicles, SUVs with four-wheel drive, to take his kitchen and wait staff home from work at the end of a frigid, snowy day.

For Gremanis, most of his workers are able to make it in. But if not, “we go pick them up,” and, he joked, “if you want to come in and eat, we’ll pick you up too.”

Staying open for snow plow drivers and road crews

Peter Kavalos, who owns the Park West Diner in Little Falls, lives only a few miles from his restaurant, and so is ready to brew a cup of hot coffee, tea or cocoa for the crews working the snow plows who frequent Park West during storms.

“We have to protect our guys working in the street!”

Gremanis feels the same way. “Smith and Sondy paving is the reason we stay open. They’re our best customers when it snows.”

But at the Tick Tock Diner in Clifton, it was the regular breakfast crowd keeping owner Niko Hatzis so busy he couldn’t stop to chat for long. “It’s like this every storm.”

As for what to order if you do brave the snow? Like most days in North Jersey, says Gremanis, “It’s a Taylor ham, egg and cheese sandwich day, no question about it.”

Which of your favorite local restaurants stay open no matter what? Let us know in the comments below or tag us on social with #northjerseysnow.