DINING

Speed, variety keep Goshen's Lux Cafe busy

Max Lander
South Bend Tribune

GOSHEN — Lux Cafe has all of the classic trappings of an American diner.

The daily specials are listed and on prominent display as you walk in. Several ceiling fans keep the air (and the smell of breakfast) circulating around the room. You can hear the sound of food cooking and customers chatting. And on every table you can find the essential condiments for the American diner experience: salt, pepper, ketchup, creamer, sugar, Tabasco and no less than four different kinds of jam.

But although it has a wide variety of breakfast options available all day long, breakfast is far from the only kind of food Lux Cafe serves. Club sandwiches, stir-fry and beef liver all have places on the restaurant’s extensive menu.

“I think probably 50% of people are coming here for breakfast,” Kirstie Stutzman, an assistant manager at Lux Cafe, says. “We have a dinner crowd, but a lot of them still get breakfast at dinnertime, and then there’s some people that come in for specific diner items, because they think it’s the best they’ve ever had. I’m not a liver fan, but everybody loves our beef liver with onions.”

Brothers-in-law Sam Tsiumas and Pete Mattheos opened Lux Cafe in March 2006. Both men are of Greek descent, which shows a little in the restaurant’s décor — as well as in the multiple gyros-based dishes and broiled Grecian chicken on the menu.

Located at 2012 Lincolnway E., Lux Cafe sits a little less than 3 miles from Goshen’s vibrant downtown, but Stutzman says she thinks the location is an asset.

“I think being over here makes us better, because there’s nothing else, really, besides fast food. So there’s no other place to sit down and eat breakfast,” she says. “People who don’t want to drive real far have a place here, but we also have people who drive from all the way across town.”

But the restaurant is near the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds, which brings in people from out of town for various events. Lux Cafe also leaves menus and coupons at hotels and elsewhere to attract business from visitors to the region who might not be in town long enough to hear about the diner through traditional word of mouth.

The restaurant’s long history in the area and the variety of food it serves means that it serves a number of different groups, from people coming in before work to those popping in on a lunch break or for dinner, though breakfast remains the establishment’s most popular type of food.

“Some of our most popular breakfasts are our skillets. The skillets are actually in a skillet, so that surprises some. And of course, omelettes,” Stutzman says. “We do a lot of just a regular American breakfast. Eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and pancakes.”

And the restaurant prides itself on how quickly it can get breakfast on the table.

“A lot of people come in before they have to get to work, so we open at 6 a.m. every day except for Sunday (7 a.m.). So we have a crowd that comes in that’s ready to eat breakfast and head to work,” Stutzman says. “Our food is very quick. If you order breakfast food, you’re eating, normally, within 5 minutes, unless it’s super busy.”

The stuffed French toast at Lux Cafe in Goshen contains cream cheese between two slices of French toast and is topped with strawberries, blueberries and chocolate.
Lux Cafe opened in 2006 in Goshen.
Lux Cafe opened in 2006 in Goshen.
The menu at Lux Cafe has an extensive range of breakfast, lunch and dinner items.
The stuffed pancakes at Lux Cafe are filled with bananas and vanilla pudding and toped with strawberries.
Lux Cafe offers a dozen different types of omelettes.
An omelette and hash browns with a side of pancakes is one of the many breakfast options available at Lux Cafe in Goshen.
Sandwich options at Lux Cafe include the turkey club, shown with fruit on the side.
Lux Cafe opened in 2006 in Goshen.
Lux Cafe opened in 2006 in Goshen.

What: Breakfast, lunch and dinner in an American diner setting

Where: 2012 Lincolnway E., Goshen

Hours: 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sundays

Prices: $18.99-$1.69

For more information: Call 574-534-8045 or visit luxcafe.net