New owner vows to keep diner unchanged

After 40 years spent in the hands of the same Riverdale family, Louie’s Dale Diner on West 231st Street was sold last month.

The former owner, Steve Katsikoumbas, 33, of Riverdale said he sold the restaurant to George Tsikis, 40, of Long Island for personal reasons. He declined to comment further on the reasons for the sale.

Mr. Tsikis said the sale was arranged privately through a mutual friend.

“Steve wanted to make sure whoever was buying the restaurant would keep the name and the spirit of the place,” he said, seated in front of a tuna melt at the end of a day-long shift managing the restaurant. “I was looking to buy and he was looking to sell.” 

Mr. Tsikis said that he would keep the diner’s menu, though he plans to add new specials including traditional Greek dishes and “perhaps a few Latin dishes.”

The sale, which Mr. Tsikis confirmed had taken place “in the last few weeks,” occurs against a backdrop of other closures near the intersection of Broadway and West 231st Street during the same period. Those closures include the Conway store at 5622 Broadway and the New Little Shoppe at 231 W. 231st St. Neighbors said the latter establishment had been open for about 50 years.

Dale’s Diner opened in Riverdale in 1975. When the restaurant’s founder, Louie Katsikoumbas, passed away about 13 years ago, it was renamed in his honor. Since opening, a change in neighborhood lines relocated the diner from Riverdale to Kingsbridge. In a February interview, the younger Mr. Katsikoumbas described the diner’s clientele as increasingly a “melting pot” of different communities.

Mr. Tsikis said that he would retain all of Mr. Katsikoumbas’ employees.

“I’m still getting used to my staff, to the neighborhood and the pace of how things go here before I make any changes,” he said.