Dishing with Diane: Paul's Family Restaurant in Elgin

HIGHWOOD, Ill. (WLS) -- It's time for our last Dishing with Diane!

Viewers have been nominating your favorite locally owned breakfast spots and we highlight them!

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Our last stop is not just known and loved for its food, but for what employees do for their own community.

Our last stop brings us to Kane County.

It's been around since the 1960s. Since then, it's become known as not just a place to get great food, but a place that makes a positive impact on the community.

Welcome to Paul's Family Restaurant.

It's the American Dream come to life.

"They came, no education and came from nothing and created this," owner Elaine Paul said.

After immigrating from Greece, Elaine Paul's parents John and Stella opened a small coffee shop in downtown Elgin in 1961. Ten years later they outgrew their shop and opened a bigger restaurant.

And quality is what the family strives for, not just for their place, but Elaine's dad would also school other restaurant owners.

"He would call the restaurant owner, it would be a little dive out in Michigan and he would all and say, 'You need to serve better quality, people will come if you serve better quality,'" Paul said.

Longtime customer Donna Peters has been coming here for decades with her family - that's why she nominated Paul's.

"They have such wonderful food," Peters said.

Paul's is also known for their philanthropic work.

"Everything they can do for our community, they do it, even when the kids were out of school the kids can come here and get breakfast for free," Peters said.

The staff here holds clothing and food drives, helping Elgin families in need. Elaine is working now on a plan to help families that lost their SNAP benefits, customers telling us that is what makes this place so special, and why day after day they keep coming back.

At 97-years-old, John himself still comes in every day. During the COVID lockdown, they decided to give the place a little refresh, so he built new wooden tables and dividers by-hand all himself.

But wait, there's more. They are famously known for one more thing... dessert.

"Seeing people here enjoying it as much as they do, coming in and looking at the pie case and their eyes get all big it's amazing I love it," baker Danielle Luce said.

And every bite is more decadent then the next.

"Our chocolate mousse cake, I have to make that one several times a week," Luce said. "Our pecan rolls are like divine. People will come in and get them or take them home."

From food to community, Paul's Family Restaurant serves everything they do just right.