Tom’s Restaurant Still Serves Brooklyn Iconic Pancakes

Scores of Big Apple eateries are evaporating amid the coronavirus crisis. So each week, Help Our Neighborhood Restaurants will highlight top neighborhood spots fighting to stay afloat while adhering to strict safety standards: the HONoR Roll. Thanks to Kyrie Irving and Beyond Meat, a New Yorker in need will get a plant-based burger whenever you order.

Long before the brownstones, luxury condos and farm-to-table restaurants, a family of Greek immigrants opened an ice cream shop in 1936 in the heart of Prospect Heights. A decade later, Gus Vlahavas turned Tom’s into a breakfast and lunch institution.

“He was a larger-than-life character,” says Jimmy Kokotas, Vlahavas’ nephew and Tom’s third-generation owner. “I joke with people that Gus and Tom’s were Prospect Heights when no one wanted to live in Prospect Heights. Now, everyone wants to live here.”

Vlahavas made Tom’s into a neighborhood hot spot with his old-school comfort food, inventive pancakes and unwavering smile. “Everyone was always welcomed and treated the same. That’s what people respected,” Kokotas says. “It didn’t matter if you were black or white or whatever you believed. If you walk through the doors, everyone is treated like family.”

It isn’t just lip service. After Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed in 1968, a riot erupted on Washington Avenue near Tom’s, and neighbors and customers linked arms to form a human chain to protect the store from destruction. The cozy diner is still known for its pancakes, all-day breakfast and lines on weekends—where employees have been rumored to hand out free coffee and cookies to those prepared to wait.

Today the lines have come to a halt. Kokotas says he’s inquired about government grants and loans to save the restaurant and its 15 employees. “I know the city has never seen anything like this, but it’s bad,” he says. “I don’t think a lot of these places will open up again.”

Tom’s Restaurant

Address: East 782 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, N.Y. 11238

Suggested dishes: Danish pancakes, cinnamon roll pancakes, Mexican omelette

Price range: $8 to $14

Phone number: (718) 636-9738

Website: www.tomsbrooklyn.com