Antioch’s Dad’s Café: Honest food in a pleasant place
- Dad’s Cafe owners and kitchen staff – Cook Rodrigo, daughter Nari, Dad Ahmed and Mom Mitsumi, and Kitchen Manager Armando.
By Harry Stoll
The anomalous Dad’s Café – in a corporate neighborhood of plastic fast food vendors – is next to the Safeway gas station on the east side of Deer Valley Road, off of Hillcrest. This spacious, nicely furnished place, has well-spaced tables, brass hooks for your coat, TVs on the walls, a wide veranda and big windows on two sides.
The food is made there, made now, with an emphasis on fresh ingredients. The morning choices (windows facing the sun) vary from biscuits and gravy to Eggs Benedict with house-made Hollandaise, or an omelet any way you want it. Not your style? Get eggs any style.
For lunch: burgers, melts, roast turkey sans and several more. Or enjoy authentic Mexican food from chef Armando Palacios.
Every day, you can get French onion soup for $3.59 a cup or $5.59 a bowl, and a special soup every day. And always, appetizers all ways. Dad’s Quesadilla is $7.49 por ejemplo.
For dinner how about Yankee pot roast? A T-bone, a New York steak, or seafood? All there. All prepared right and served by a server who is attentive but not hovering. Amy Lee Hubey is among them. It’s her first server job and she’s been there a year (about when it opened). Good owners retain their workers.
Entrée prices range from $10 to $17. Beer and wine is available and beer is a bargain during happy hour. Parking is plentiful and free.
About what drives Dad’s: Dad Ahmed Mobdy was born in Port Said, Egypt. Mother Mitsumi in Osaka, Japan. At a culinary class at San Francisco City College in the 1980s it was Far East meets Mid-East. He is husky with a large personality. She is diminutive and her eyes smile. When at work she never appears to sit down. One of their two daughters, Nariman Mobdy, is a manager.
Dad’s Café opens at 8 a.m. (7 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday) and closes at 9 p.m. It’s located at 3421 Deer Valley Road in Antioch. The phone number is (925) 777-0791 and the website is www.dadscafeantioch.com. See their ad on the right side of this page and in the February issue of the Herald.
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Dad’s Cafe owners & staff
