With few exceptions, the days of the 24-hour diner are long
gone in the Rochester area. But if you’re an early riser with an appetite, head
to Webster, where Golden Boys Family Restaurant — in the heart of the village since
1973 — opens at 4:30 a.m. seven days a week. Koz Liapis, who manages the
restaurant along with his sister, Kathie O’Neil, says that in the restaurant’s
early days, Webster was predominantly a farming community, and they’d routinely
have 10 to 20 people waiting to get in when the doors opened. Liapis further
explained, “Today, we still have about 10 guys come in every morning between
4:30 and 5:30, and they’ve been doing it for about 30 years.” Impressively, he
then rattled off their names, one by one.

Golden Boys
closes at 2 p.m. except Fridays, when it stays open till 8 p.m. and offers an
expanded menu to include various seafood dishes for dinner, including homemade
New England- and Manhattan-style clam chowder (there are at least two homemade
soups on the menu every day). As such, it’s primarily a breakfast and lunch
spot, but like any legitimate diner, breakfast is always available, and
breakfast is Golden Boys’ forte.

O’Neil
develops many of the dishes and is a driving force behind the changing seasonal
breakfast specials. When the calendar and weather shift to autumn, she adds
pumpkin-chocolate chip pancakes and the harvest omelet, which includes spiced
ground sausage, apples, and cheddar. When winter returns, so do such items as
gingerbread and hot cocoa pancakes with marshmallows. But at this time of year,
fresh berries play a leading role in dishes like mixed berry pancakes ($8.75),
blueberry- or raspberry-lemon pancakes ($8.75), fruit (mixed berry, strawberry,
or blueberry) and cream cheese crepes ($8), or stuffed fruity (mixed berry,
strawberry, or blueberry) French toast ($6.75 short stack/$7.25 full stack).

Golden Boys
is undoubtedly the sweet spot for breakfast in summer. In addition to fresh
fruit-focused dishes, you’ll find Fruity Pebbles pancakes ($8.50), turtle
pancakes (chocolate pancakes with pecans and caramel; $9.25), cannoli pancakes
or French toast (homemade cannoli chocolate-chip filling rolled up in
buttermilk pancakes or layered between slices of Texas-cut French toast, and drizzled
with chocolate sauce; $8.75/$9.00), Black Forest pancakes (chocolate pancakes
topped with cherry pie filling and homemade marshmallow sauce; $8.75), and
peanut butter-banana quesadillas (a grilled tortilla filled with peanut butter
and sliced banana; $7.95).

On a recent visit,
my girlfriend Molly’s daughter, Jocelyn, scarfed down an order of Fruity
Pebbles pancakes, which had the eponymous cereal in the batter and on top,
splashed with homemade marshmallow sauce. Molly enjoyed the blueberry-lemon
pancakes, which feature a hint of lemon in the batter, lavished with lemon curd
and fresh blueberries. I delighted in the stuffed fruity (blueberry) French
toast, which had sweetened cream cheese and fresh blueberries between slices of
eggy, golden French toast, topped with the same sweetened cream cheese and more
blueberries. Just barely sweet, with no syrup necessary, it’s ideal for a fruit
lover who typically does not choose sweet breakfast dishes.

Golden Boys
also excels with savory breakfast dishes. I housed a tomato and avocado omelet
($9.25 with home fries and toast), to which I added pepper jack cheese. But the
stars of my savory breakfast were the tender, fluffy, and crispy-at-the-edges
homemade breakfast biscuits smothered with spicy, salty homemade sausage gravy,
rich with crumbly sausage ($4). Other noteworthy savory breakfasts I’d like to
try include the crab cake eggs Benedict ($9.25) and the golden platter, which
is hash browns with cheese, sour cream, and sautรฉed onions baked into a
casserole and topped with bacon, then topped again with two eggs of your choice
($6.75).

Lest I
shortchange Golden Boys’ lunch offerings, I must first mention the soups. On
one occasion I had Italian wedding soup that defied tradition with both kidney
and garbanzo beans added to the customary ingredients. I also had to try the
Manhattan clam chowder, which for some reason, can only be found locally in
diners. In addition to chopped clams, this zesty chowder was chock-full of
tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, carrots, and celery. The homemade soups are $2.25 for
a cup, $3 for a bowl.

During a
lunch get-together, my friend Dave devoured a Rachel melt: thick-cut roasted
turkey breast with thick-cut cabbage slaw and melted cheese on sourdough ($9.25
with a side of fries). I chowed on a shaved steak melt with fresh peppers,
onions, and mozzarella on golden-from-the-griddle sourdough ($9.75 with fries).
He and I each complemented our meals with milkshakes — Dave, chocolate; me,
vanilla — both classically thick, smooth, creamy, and not too sweet.

The original
Golden Boys — a moniker dubbed to the restaurant’s original owners (Liapis and
O’Neil’s father, Gus, and their Uncle Steve) by an early regular — burned down
in 1987, but rebounded and has sustained itself with vitality since. This is in
no small part due to Liapis and O’Neil’s determination (both have worked there
since their teen years) and desire to provide a consistent, family-like
experience for their patrons who, as Liapis states, “are always gonna get an
honest meal at an honest price.”

This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2019.