On a delightfully warm and sunny spring afternoon that invited
al fresco dining, a respite from recent rains, my girlfriend Molly and I
arrived for a lunch date at the Rochester diner mainstay, Jines. The spot
offers a wide-ranging and inventive menu of tasty homemade food at reasonable
prices (that includes many Greek specialties and, of course, breakfast all day),
as well as outdoor seating on the prime people-watching corner of Park Avenue
and Berkeley Street. Accordingly, the scene bustled around us entertainingly,
while the Jines staff pampered us with kind and efficient service, a prelude to
a fulfilling lunch.
We started
by sharing saganaki ($7.99) — a sliced wedge of kefalotyri cheese, lightly
sautéed in lemon and sherry, with grilled pita. The tangy sauce proved an
excellent counterpoint to the piquant, salty cheese. Molly enjoyed a falafel
sandwich (with rice, $10.29) in a fluffy pita filled with lettuce, tomato,
onion, and house-made tzatziki. The homemade falafel were delicately spiced,
tender inside, crispy outside.
I slurped
down a bowl of clam chowder Florentine ($3.99/cup, $4.49/bowl). Smooth and creamy
with spinach leaves and chunks of potato, it was thinner than most New England
clam chowders, and welcome on that warm day. I followed with a chicken souvlaki
sandwich ($10.29), which had large, well-charred pieces of marinated chicken
breast, lettuce, tomato, onion, and Jines’s herbaceous tzatziki, wrapped in a
pita and accompanied by crispy-tender steak fries.
Despite what
the iconic sign overhanging the sidewalk on Park Avenue reads, this upscale
Greek diner is “Jines” not “Jine’s.” George Gines — father of current owner
Peter Gines — opened the restaurant at the corner of Park and Berkeley in 1971
with the name “Jines” — not “Gines” — so people wouldn’t mispronounce it with a
hard “g” sound. As for the sign, Peter won’t replace it; he says he fears the
city of Rochester would not allow a new sign in this
preservation district.
After
immigrating from Greece in 1951, George Gines worked for his uncles in a
Rochester ice cream factory, then purchased Critic’s ice cream parlor (then
located in the Bull’s Head area), which he owned from 1961 to 1972. George
expanded Critic’s offerings, adding a grill for hot dogs and hamburgers. Sensing
opportunity in 1971– at a time when no other restaurants existed in the eastern
half of Park Avenue — George leased the building at Park and Berkeley, where
Jines has thrived ever since.
Peter Gines
and his sister Irene worked in the restaurant as teens, and Peter assumed
ownership in 1991 after he’d graduated with an economics degree from Hobart and
William Smith Colleges and grew impatient with his desk job at Citibank. Peter
attributes the restaurant’s continued prosperity to his father, who he says instilled
in him a sense of purpose and dedication, and established the foundation for
success at Jines.
To survive
for so long in an inherently volatile industry, on a stretch of Park Avenue
that has seen a great deal of restaurant turnover through the years, is no small
feat. With several staff members now in double-digit years of service, Peter says
his efforts to treat employees first as human beings, and also looking to them
for ideas for innovation and improvement, engenders loyalty and perpetuates
further success. He also asserts that “communication between guests and staff
is critical” to sustain repeat visitation, as does Jines’s practice of allowing
guests to customize menu items. Jines remains family-oriented; Peter’s two
teenage sons help out in the restaurant, and his wife Amy makes the
spanakopita, meatloaf, and meatballs. And Peter’s 78-year-old mother still
makes Jines’s delicious baklava.
Jines’s
space and menu (chicken and waffles, anyone?) have both evolved over the years.
In the early 1980s, Jines obtained a beer and wine license, which Peter says
helps their dinner and weekend-brunch business. Today, the beer list includes a
worthy selection of local craft brews from such breweries as Rohrbach,
Swiftwater, Three Heads, and Young Lion. Peter oversaw a significant renovation
and expansion of the diner in 2008, updating the space with more seating and
earth-toned decor. True to its roots, Jines has stools at a counter, but most
of the seating is tables and booths. Framed black-and-white photographs of
Rochester landmarks by local photographer Sheridan Vincent hang on the walls.
Jines offers
several homemade soups on any given day, and on a subsequent visit I chose a
bowl of classic Greek avgolemono soup ($3.99/cup; $4.49/bowl), which combines
chicken, orzo, egg, and lemon. Jines’s version has a delightfully creamy
balance of flavors. It’s tart without bite, thick without being viscous. The
delectably messy lamb and feta burger ($9.99) combines ground lamb with
Kalamata olives, feta cheese, and herbs. The hot, drippy, juicy wonder is
served on a pita and loaded with thinly-sliced red onions, lettuce, and tomato,
with tzatziki on the side. Normally served with fries, I opted for a side of
onion rings (a $3 upcharge, but the best decision I made all day). They were
thick, sweet, and crispy, and unlike so many others they stayed intact, bite
after bite — among the best I’ve had in Rochester.
On a rainy
Sunday morning, Molly, her daughter Jocelyn, and I returned for breakfast.
Jocelyn ordered and enthusiastically devoured the thick, crust-less cinnamon
swirl French toast ($8.29), which Jines makes using a cinnamon roll loaf
sourced from Baker Street. Fluffy and inherently sweet, it needed no syrup (but
Jocelyn, being 13, well, you know…). Molly said she loved the moist and dense
banana walnut bread French toast ($8.29), which similarly required no syrup,
and received none.
I don’t
typically get fired up about breakfast fare, but Jines’s house-made hash
benedict ($10.49) — two poached eggs over corned beef hash on top of American
cheese and a thick English muffin, drizzled with hollandaise sauce — lit me up.
The bold and toothsome chopped corned beef had me at first bite. We also all
shared a plate of home fries. No matter where, I always request home fries
cooked till crispy. Rarely am I rewarded, but Jines delivered them expertly
browned and ideally seasoned, not just salted.
This article appears in Jun 12-18, 2019.
