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Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Breakfast Bonanza: Bill's Cafe owner Bill Rizos displays a couple of his restaurant's specialties: a ham-and-cheese omelet and a Willow Glen Scramble.
Old favorites keep diners coming back to Bill's Cafe
By Jim Aquino
During the 24 years that the Rizos family-run Bill's Cafe has been in business on Willow Street, many of the Rizoses' original business-owner neighbors have either moved away or passed away. But change doesn't seem to bother the restaurant's founder, owner and namesake, veteran San Jose restaurateur Bill Rizos.
"I'm glad to see Willow Glen changing," says Rizos, 63. "A lot of young people with little kids come around with carriages and all that. I love little kids."
While the faces in the neighborhood frequently change, the most popular dishes at Bill's are still the same old favorites, including deep-fried calamari for dinner and avgolemono soup, or egg lemon soup, from Rizos homeland of Greece. The soup is a tangy, sumptuous combination of lemon juice, chicken broth, rice and eggs.
"People come from all over San Jose for the Greek soup," Rizos says. "Yesterday, a lady took home eight bowls for dinner."
Each day, Bill's Cafe receives about 20 to 30 to-go orders for the soup, according to Rizos daughter, Dina, 32, who helps her father run the restaurant and sometimes gets assistance from her mother, Amalia. Describing the customers' enthusiasm for the soup, Dina says, "It doesn't matter if the day is hot or cold. They love it."
The soup is one of the oldest dishes at the restaurant Rizos opened in 1977. Rizos emigrated from the Greek village of Voliare (near the city of Lamia) to the United States in 1951 to help out his uncle at his small cafe in St. Louis, Ill. He worked as a hotel busboy and waiter in St. Louis before moving to the South Bay and starting his first restaurant, the Hungry House on Coleman Avenue--the precursor to Bill's--in 1966.
Bill's has served as a second home for Dina and her brother, Demetri, who as kids would often drop by Bill's after school at Willow Glen Elementary. Rizos remembers how his children would sit in the corner and read their books while they helped out in the restaurant.
Dina began assisting with restaurant chores when she was 10.
"I grew up here with a lot of my customers," she says. "I learned the value of the dollar real early. I started waitressing at 15 and started learning about the books and about ordering when I was 19 or 20. And I'm still learning. There's a lot to learn."
Dina is also learning about customers' tastes and constantly takes suggestions from them about the menu. For instance, she created mini-breakfast specials (like half an order of eggs benedict) after finding out that most customers prefer light breakfasts.
Lately, customers have been requesting more Mexican dishes, Dina says. "You've got to keep up with the times," she says, "so I'm going to probably add huevos rancheros in the morning and maybe burrito sandwiches for lunch and dinner."
Dina credits the entire staff for the success of Bill's.
"It's not just my dad or myself or my mom who make Bill's--it's everybody. It's my cooks, dishwashers and busboys. I'm very fortunate to have the staff I have," she says. "They say that's what the Greeks are made for--the restaurants. It's a fun business. I don't think I'll ever get out of it."
In July, Willow Glen residents showed their appreciation for Bill's by voting it the best place for breakfast in the Willow Glen Resident's "Best of Willow Glen 2001" issue.
"I have to thank the people of Willow Glen for supporting us all these years," Rizos says, "and I hope we're here for a long time."
Bill's Cafe, 1115 Willow St. (at Lincoln Avenue), Tuesday-Saturday. 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; Sunday and Monday, 7 a.m.-3 p.m. 408.294.1125.
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Willow Glen, California Since 1992
