Photograph by Tsutomu Fujita
Grecian View: Chris Kouretas, manager of John's XLNT Foods, sets up a table in front of a trompe l'oeil mural of a Greek village in the restaurant.
John's XLNT Foods stays excellent as it changes
By Jim Aquino
With the holiday season in full swing, John's XLNT Foods manager Chris Kouretas says he hopes the influx of shoppers to downtown Willow Glen will boost business for the venerable Greek/Italian/American family restaurant during dinnertime.
"Dinner's been down a lot lately since Sept. 11," Chris says. "Even before that, it was down. But now, it's down a lot more."
Business during dinner has dropped 10 percent, according to Chris' father, John, who owns the restaurant. But otherwise, for the rest of the day, business at John's is solid.
Chris says customers like coming to John's because of the freshness of the food, and they get the opportunity to try dishes they can't really find anywhere else, like the gyro sandwich, Greek egg lemon soup, moussaka (Greek casseroles) and dolmades (grapevine leaves stuffed with rice, meat and other seasonings). John's also offers Italian dishes, including chicken parmigiana and sautéed veal marsala.
One of the oldest restaurants in Willow Glen, John's opened in 1976. John, who emigrated from Olympia, Greece, had worked as a busboy and cook in Salinas and San Jose, and he and his brother Pete decided to launch their own restaurant. The brothers bought Mike's XLNT Foods on Lincoln Avenue and turned it into John's.
According to John, the "XLNT" in the restaurant's name, a shortening of the word "excellent," was intended as a response to an old rival restaurant on Willow Street, Ed's Fine Foods.
"Ed's was the king of the Willow Glen," John says in his thick Greek accent.
John says that when he opened his restaurant, Lincoln Avenue was much different from what it looks like today.
"It was all buildings, no trees," John says. "A lot of old people."
Chris, who started working at his father's business as a busboy when he was 16 and then became manager of John's in 1998, says the restaurant attracted an older crowd for a long time because most Willow Glen residents were seniors.
"And then with the dot-com boom, a lot of younger people moved into some of the homes out here, so we started getting a younger crowd," Chris says.
The interior of John's has also evolved over the years.
"There used to be red velour wallpaper with gold tablecloths, like a cross between a truck stop and a '50s diner," Chris says. "It was really loud."
One major addition to the interior was a trompe l'oeil mural of a Greek village overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, which the Kouretases painted about seven years ago. In a 1996 Metro article, reviewer Broos Campbell wrote that the painting was one of several touches that showed that John's was "no slop-the-hogs-and-move-'em-out type of joint."
But according to Chris, one thing has remained constant: the quality of the food.
"People who have been coming in for years bring their kids, and now, their kids are bringing their children, so we have second- and third-generation customers here," Chris says. "If they're brave enough to try something different, we have it here."
John's XLNT Foods, 1238 Lincoln Ave., is open Monday-Thursday, 7 a.m.-8:30 p.m., Friday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-9 p.m. and Sunday, 8 a.m.-8 p.m. For more information, call 408.998.1440.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
